And Now She's Seven

Knock-knock.

Who's there?

Bunny.

Bunny who?

Bunny eating a carrot on your head!

Brianna told this joke to Tim when she was very little, and it became a sweet memory, and one that they have repeated to each other many times since.  So....it was pretty perfect when we found this hopping bunny toy on Amazon.  It also came with a plastic carrot, and will make crunching sounds when you put it up to its mouth.  Super cute, she loves it.  Happy 7th Sweet Brianna, we love you <3

Christmas Captions 2020

Will got rainbow Goldfish crackers in his stocking; that's a pretty good start.

An original Slinky for Declan.

Aiden wanted "The Deep End," the newest book in the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series.  He's read all the others, and I have to admit they are pretty funny!

I found this jumpsuit/romper on Amazon and sent the link to Tim.  Such a sweetie, he remembered and surprised me with it.  Let me tell you, the reviews did not disappoint, I literally wore this thing for three days straight because it was so comfortable.  I wore it all of Christmas Day, then paired it with some gold earrings and a denim jacket for church on Sunday, then another day this week just to putter around the house doing laundry, etc. I plan to get at least one more in black, and maybe even the navy blue/roses one.

I also really wanted this simple little Timex watch (also from Amazon) which Tim was super surprised about because I have never liked gold, but it has been growing on me the last couple of years.  I wear this watch everyday, and everyday Will pushes the Indiglo button and makes it light up :-D

We got this toy vacuum for William (apparently we buy everything from Amazon.) It is his favorite toy.  After coming to see me in the mornings, he goes straight for his little vacuum.  It's so adorable, he just loves it.

Caitlin read the two books that came before this pre-teen graphic novel, and was so excited to spy it in Walmart a few weeks ago.  I flipped through it a bit and while the storyline is relatable for "young people nowadays" (how geriatric did that sound? lol...) the part that sold me was that the main character's baby brother's name is Will, and he's under 2.  Wow, just like our Will, how perfect is that?

Declan is sort of a goof, so we knew this floppy little T-rex hand puppet would have us all in stitches.  Unfortunately, Will is terrified of the thing, so we had to put it away for a bit.

Caitlin picked out this giant shark for Corey and we figured he would play with it in the bath, but he actually plays with it all over the house.  The other night, he put a pull-up on it and tucked it into bed next to him.  Such a card.

Brianna drew an adorable picture of Tim in a multicolor shirt.

I told you Declan was a goof.  Brianna got a hair-styling doll head thing from some relatives and Declan is modeling it for us :-P

Okay, I am such a sucker for big brother/little brother stuff.  Aiden is helping Corey to build his new Lego Minecraft set, and Corey is listening to Aiden's headphones.  

Adorable.

So sweet.  Be still my heart.

Dressed the babies in their new Christmas jammies, unfortunately, Will's had a little too much Christmas at this point.  I thought he would do better if I held him during the picture, but this was the best we could get.  Considering how the rest of 2020 went, I'll take it.

Well, tomorrow's Brianna's 7th birthday, and the last day of the year.  Here's to you and yours, our hopes and prayers for a great 2021.  I won't say all of 2020 was terrible; for our family it was actually very clarifying, if that makes sense.  We learned what was important, what we were capable of, the value of family time, how much we appreciate our freedoms, and just how blessed we really are.  I have no idea what 2021 will bring, but I have the feeling that it will be a year of personal growth for us, to apply the many lessons we learned this year.  Once everything is opened up again and the whole virus thing has quieted down, I have a feeling that many will not take that for granted (me included) and will boldly pursue dreams that had previously lain dormant.  Speaking for myself only here, I think that before the pandemic, I thought I was not able to pursue some interests and dreams, because of my various domestic duties.  During the lockdowns, I realized that I actually was able before, and the limitations were only in my mind.  Knowing that now, I am finally willing, though not yet able.  May 2021 provide the opportunities that I am now ready to pursue.

Personal Growth.

Maybe that will be my defining phrase for 2021.  We'll see. And I'll post it here, don't worry.  To you, from us, Happy New Year :-)

Just A Quick Post...

I have not blogged in forever.  I miss it!  It is a very reflective and relaxing activity for me, so I do really enjoy doing it....it's just a matter of finding quiet, uninterrupted time to do it in.  Anywho, we moved to our rental house a couple of months ago, started our homeschool year shortly after that, and had a new baby shortly after that!  So, I am going to try to blog in quick little snippets here and there, so I can document a little bit of our life here, and so that I can get in a little techno-therapy (Is that a thing?  Like retail therapy, but on a computer and with no shopping involved...anyway, I made it a thing just now.)

Corey Michael was born on September 17th, 2015 and is four weeks old today.  Apparently, I am the biggest procrastinator and/or liar, in that I never post any of my babies' birth stories, even though I promise you all on here that I will.  Like, every time we have a baby.  So sorry.  Character flaw.  Love me anyway (please?)  So, don't expect one for Corey, at least not for years and years, or until all the kids are out of diapers.....or in college :-)

Before I sign off and rush to pick up my husband from work (this post took longer than I thought!)  I wanted to share that I joined a Mom's Bible Study today!  Yay me!  We are using this book:

I am excited to connect with other moms at our new church campus (since we moved.)

Lastly, a parting shot of my beautiful and amazing children.  My breath catches a little in my throat when I look at this picture and realize that God gave me all of these cuties.  I don't deserve them, and my cup overflows.  Til next time, lovely readers.

How To Move When You Are 7 Months Pregnant and Your Family Has the Flu

DONT!!!

Just kidding. If someone offers you an amazing rental house and your little (big) family is bursting at the seams where you currently live, you should definitely do it, and you should do it before you are caring for a newborn on very little sleep.

Four years ago, we moved into our current apartment with three little kiddos. Next Saturday, we will be moving into a rental house (yay!) with 5 kids AND I am currently 7 months pregnant.  Oh my goodness, please say a prayer for us to somehow pull this off. There is still so much to pack.  I feel like I have only made a small dent.  Our family has been taking turns with some sort of flu bug for the last week and a half and I am having a wee bit of anxiety that I will not be able to pack everything in time. I think I am going to just start focusing on packing up one entire room at a time, and leaving an open box of essential items for each room.

Bite size pieces. Work at it a little each day. To channel Dory from "Finding Nemo":  "Just keep packing, just keep packing." I've gotten the most generous offers from friends and family to come help me pack, but with the whole flu bug thing going on over here, I just can't in good conscience ask people to come over and catch the flu. Bleh.

Now, I don't care for a lot of television watching in my house, but after a sincere discussion with my husband at lunch today, where I admitted that I haven't been able to pack a single box all day because I have been snuggling and reading stories to sick kids on the couch, in between cooking, dishes, laundry, diaper changes, baths, etc.....he convinced me to let the kids watch some cartoons on Netflix so I can pack.  I felt guilty doing this, but he reminded me that I am not adopting a new parenting style where I ignore the kids all day and they become couch potatoes forever, I am just letting them watch a couple of shows each afternoon for a week of their lives, so we can move to a house where they will have a huge back yard and more rooms in which to run and play and be kids. It is a legitimate solution to a short term problem. And it really is only short term. We prob won't even have the TV hooked up to Netflix for a while after we move, so it won't be a temptation or even an option for them, and the kids can go back to being their normal, creative, active selves.

Okay, off to packing. In two weeks, we'll be on the other side of this and have all the time in the world to unpack and settle in to our new home. At least until the baby comes in September. Then it gets crazy all over again! But a good kind of crazy :-)

If anyone reads this post (ha!), please leave a comment with your best moving tips!

Sometimes...

Sometimes...

I give Declan a mullet....

Then I fast forward a few decades and give him the style he wanted. (But the mullet was actually kinda cool, right? Party in the back!)

Sometimes...we let the 2 year old floss her own teeth.

Sometimes....we give Brianna the tiniest of pig tails.

Sometimes...we search deep inside our hand-me-down couch for a missing item and instead we find 10 dog bones.

Sometimes....I let them play in the mud....then we do a big load of wash.

Sometimes....we get to peek at one of God's miracles.

Sometimes....we go hiking....but we take a wrong turn and accidentally hike on the give-yourself-a-heart-attack-mostly-stairstep-trail instead of the easy family friendly trail we had planned for.

Sometimes....we give Daddy a subscription to Dollar Shave Club for Father's Day.

Sometimes....we find some old homemade play dough in the pantry, which smells like pumpkin spice because we made it last fall, but is actually the perfect color and consistency for making the kids' first baking soda volcano.

Sometimes....Aiden makes the cutest sweetest birthday card for a cousin's party.  "I'm sorry that there isn't that many people.  I don't know how many people are going to the party so that's why I didn't draw that many people."

Sometimes....I sew with the baby in my lap.

Sometimes....I let the baby eat a muffin while in my lap while I'm sewing.  Just because she's so stinkin' cute. 

Sometimes....our 2 year old decides to take a nap under the coffee table. 

Sometimes....we all try on a pair of dollar store reading glasses.  Even if one of us has 20/20 vision and won't get to wear cute glasses for real until they are an old lady (me).

Sometimes....we get our swag on in the Walmart.  Just keepin' it fresh.

Sometimes....we have the best impromptu parking lot hockey games ever.  Even if we can't skate and prefer to wear rain boots (in July.)

And sometimes I disappear from blogland for awhile.  So, I hope you all enjoyed some cute and funny photos of what our family has been up to the last few months :-)

A Hard Decision and A Miracle

Last year, my husband and I made a hard decision.  A really hard decision.  We were facing the birth of our 5th child, who we loved so much already and couldn't wait to meet.  The difficult thing was, we had just had a baby 15 months before her.   And one 2 years before that.  And one 17 months before that.  And another one 17 months before that.  We were about to have 5 children ages 6 and under.

Home life was busy and stressful as many of you with small children already know.  Finances were getting tighter with each new baby.  Each child receiving a little less attention as their slice of the parental pie got a bit smaller.  Each pregnancy began with morning sickness starting earlier and lasting longer than the last pregnancy.  Last, but certainly not least, my last prenatal blood screening revealed an antibody present in my blood which had been passed to me through a previous delivery, when my baby's blood and mine had mixed.  This antibody "Anti-JKA" was multiplying and had the propensity to attack my baby's red blood cells, if it reached high enough levels.  It gets more complicated from there, but I found a very informative blog post that it explains it pretty well, which you can read here.  I saw specialists during my pregnancy, having lots of extra ultrasounds and blood tests throughout.  The specialists at the Maternal/Fetal Center at the children's hospital monitored my antibody levels closely up to the end of my pregnancy and felt that they were low enough that they were not a present threat to the baby.  My frequent in-depth ultrasounds confirmed that she was doing well.  However, they cautioned my husband and I that we should not have any more children, because the antibody levels in my body would only continue to rise and would become more of a threat to my next baby.  This was an extremely stressful time for us.  We absolutely relied on God in so many ways, every day; for His provision, for His peace, for His strength.  That is why we named our new daughter Brianna Faith:  "Strong" Faith.

So, we made the hard decision to have my tubes tied after the birth of our 5th baby.  The procedure took place in February 2014.  I cried on the operating table as I ended a special chapter of my life.  I thanked God for blessing me with my 5 beautiful children.  I told Him that I trusted Him to carry and lead me through this next new chapter.

That was our hard decision.  And about the miracle?.....

We just found out that I am 5 weeks pregnant.  Today, on my 28th birthday, I saw my little miracle's heart beating on the ultrasound screen.

God gave us the faith.  He has always provided for us.  We have His peace and are resting in it.  He will bring us through this, as well.

Cinnamon Flop

I have recently discovered a delicious and simple recipe called "Cinnamon Flop". I am not sure about the origins of it's name, because there is no "flopping" involved in it's making; and it turns out wonderfully, not at all like a "flop," but perhaps there is some mysterious explanation floating around on the internet. I challenge YOU, readers, to seek this information out and post it in the comments below. Inquiring minds need to know!

Funny name aside, it is basically a recipe for two identical coffee cakes, baked in two cake/pie pans.  It is very simple to make and you mix everything in one bowl! It is an old Amish recipe and something I will be baking regularly for years to come, I'm sure, as my go-to coffee cake/quick dessert/quick breakfast. I changed some things from the original recipe I had found (like subbing in almond extract for vanilla because I was out, and using less sugar because one whole cup seemed a bit much.) 

I sincerely hope you can read my rusty cursive (I was feeling old-fashioned) and I encourage you to comment with any questions if you are unsure of the recipe.  I managed to snap a few photos with my phone this morning while baking, and I hope they inspire you to try this tasty recipe for yourself.

The pictures below are of the first time I made it this morning.  I had to bake it again for dessert, because my husband missed the mid-morning baking of the first batch (which the kids devoured), and said he couldn't listen to my tales of it until he'd had some for himself.

A close up of all that delicious butt-ah!