Happy Birthday, Brayden!

Quite appropriatly, all of today's pictures are Brayden pictures.

My little one year old is finally reaching milestones Emily probably did months ago! Well, I don't mind. He's staying a baby a little longer than some. So what. :) hehe. Let's see, the new brand ones are sitting back up from a crawling position, pulling up to things, waving, kissing, SAYING MAMA!!! and signing milk, more and eat.

We haven't had a party for him yet. I know it's a huge deal, but for some reason I couldn't motivate myself to plan a party. We'll do one soon, and take lots of pictures - without dates on them :)


He look so big!! Taken today... he's my birthday boy!!

Mama's big 1 year old. sniff... he's growing up so fast!

He's copying Emily. :)
Messy boy.
New Shoes!! Tom says they are old man shoes. :)

His new "I've got an attitude face" He'll make that face, roll his eyes and grunt a "I'm very put out with you grunt" hehe...... I've got all of his nonverbal phrases down pat. :)

Today's schedule

uMy schedule is never the same day to day. For when the occational mood strikes to get everything clean all at once, I keep this list of chores on hand and alter it as needed to fit my day. :) Today is one of those days. :)

I usually bump everything down till about 11 so stuff with the kids gets done early, but today I'm working the kids in. :) I accidentally left a printed out copy of this on my fridge once when my inlaws were over for dinner. :) They were amazed at all I get done everyday! And also wondered why it didn't start till 11:30! (Am I sleeping till 11 every morning?? HA!) I had to explain my wacky system, that I don't do all of that everyday, and that it starts at 11:30 because we're usually doing school until about that time... or rather Taylor gets to a point where she's working independently. :) Anyways... here's a look at my day today. Oops... it's 8:04, already behind schedule! :)

8:00- Put on laundry
8:05- Fold and put away clean laundry
8:15- Feed kids/have breakfast
8:30- Clean kitchen/wipe out fridge
9:15- Rotate laundry
9:20- Fold and put away clean laundry
9:30- Clean living and dining rooms
10:00- Focused school time/Play with kids
11:00- Fold and put away clean laundry
11:10- Clean front bath
11:30- Clean master bedroom
12:00- Fold and put away clean laundry
12:15- Lunch/clean up
12:45- Mid-day down time :)
1:00- Clean master bathroom
1:30- Vacuum whole house
2:00- Fold and put away clean laundry
2:15- Organize play/junk room!
3:15- Fold and put away clean laundry
3:30- Sweep and mop all tile areas
3:45- Dust whole house
4:00- Clean all glass
4:15- Take a walk with kids/go to park
5:30- Start dinner (we're late eaters)

Praise report!

You all remember this little girl, Suzannah, whom I introduced to you as my new little sister? Well, just to bring you up to speed, she's been in the childrens hospital in Tulsa pending dhs' decision whether or not to place with my parent's family. They've taken their time, first saying they had another more suitible family, who it turns out WAS NOT suitable... then just refusing to place with them because they have over 6 in the in their home. Throughout all of this, my parents have noT given up hope and continue to visit her daily, often for hours at a time.

While we were there for Christmas we got to meet Suzannah for the first time. Up to this point, I will admit I questioned what my parents were doing, taking on another child with even more special needs than Sophia and Mirah. She has cerebal palsy and has seizures. She can't talk or sit up on her own and watching her stare off into space, she looks very sad. But seeing her little face and holding her really changed what I thought about it all. When you catch her eyes and they light up and she smiles at you, there is just so much potential there! I just know there's so much going on in her head that she's not being able to express because of her communication limitaions. And the way she responds to my mom can only be described as love. When we got there she was just lying in her bed, awake but all alone. When she heard mom's voice she started making noises and kicking really hard. You could tell she was really excited! I also saw her follow mom with her eyes and smile.

After meeting this little girl who will be (and already is) my sister, I could really see why my parents are fighting so hard for her. She's just an amazing little girl.

My parents had a court date a few days ago for a judge to decide whether or not to force dhs to place Suzannah with their family. The judge ruled that they should place with my parents family,(Yay!) but put a stay on the judgment for two weeks to give dhs a chance to appeal. If she had gotten to go home that day with mom and dad, and they had won the appeal she would have had to be removed from their home, a traumatizing situation for everyone involved. I'm so happy that the judge ruled in thier favor though... and the insight in putting the stay on the judgment was wise. Praise God that very soon Suzannah will be able to go home to her family who loves her so much!

Beauty queen

Isn't her hair just gorgeous?? The curl is natual and it's so thick! And she's only 2!! Mom tells her she has the Veronica Lake peekaboo look because when it's down tjat one wave falls over her eye. :) 

Suzannah in her sitting square. She's so loveable. Here eyes look so sad sometimes, but if you catch her gaze they light up and there's so much life there! It's pretty amazing. 

Conflict

Is it wrong to not want to be defined by my kids, husband and home? I just typed a whole rant about being boring - at least from the standpoint of my blog - and then erased all of it. The gist of it is this: I have the greatest husband, I love him, my kids, my home... I am growing in my walk with God... I'm involved in many aspects of our church and our homeschool group..... by many standards, I have the perfect life.

So, why I do I want more? I wouldn't call it discontentment - just a longing for excitment. I miss the spontinaity of single life. (the ONLY aspect of single life I miss!! :) ) I want to go back to school. I want to travel. I guess I just want it all. :)

God is faithful. I'm finding I HAVE to lean on Him.

But I still want to go for ice cream at midnight and take walks in the rain! Is this sinful??

Well, what do you know??

You Are Likely a First Born

At your darkest moments, you feel guilty.At work and school, you do best when you're researching. When you love someone, you tend to agree with them often. In friendship, you are considerate and compromising. Your ideal careers are: business, research, counseling, promotion, and speaking. You will leave your mark on the world with discoveries, new information, and teaching people to dream.

The Birth Order Predictor

These things are surprisingly accurate - and addictive. :)

Punky Brayden

LOL - my thanks to Kate to making my son a rockstar... :) 

Oklahoma visit

This was back in August when the kids and I stayed with my siblings while my parents were gone on their second honeymoon. I love this picture. You really can't tell that Chandler isn't just one of the kids. :) Left to righ - Noah, Chandler, Erika, Hannah, and Sophia!

My little hawaiian girl

Sophia is so beautiful. I've always thought she looked like Lilo from Lilo and Stitch with her dark hair and complextion. Actually, she's Egyptian! Cool, huh?

They're so sweet together. :) 

Partners in crime

Best Friends - Aunt Angel (5) and her niece Taylor (then 6). :) 

More pics of family

I was trying to find a picture with my littlest sister in it - That's Mirah between Chandler and Phia! She's 2 and also has down syndrome. Both of the little girls are so much fun! I miss them so much. I know in my head that they're delayed somewhat, but everytime we see them, they've learned so much more! It's so cool to see them flourish in the warm, loving enviroment of our family.

You can tell how much fun my kids are having with their aunts and uncles. :) Oh, Judah is the one next to Taylor. He's 7.

Look Grammy!

I love my train set! :)

He's always asking to put it together. And even when it's not set up he carries around the engine and tells everyone that this is his "daddy twain" - Thomas the Train = Tom. Beats me how he made the connection. Oh, come to think about it, Taylor might have mentioned it. 

Wild thang

 

Lots of updates!

Sorry - it's a little overwhelming. I had so many great pictures from Christmas and I didn't even post half of them. :) Our digital camera has been our single best investment for our family!! :)

Love you all.

Birthday party pictures

Princess and Woody cakes, family and presents. Oh and homemade lasagna! What a great party! :) Taylor helped with dinner and it was a great success! We had a really good time.

A game for her L-max - an educational gameboy type thing. It's really cool, she plays it a lot and is really good at it.

Chandler was SOOOO EXCITED about his Toy Story and Toy Story 2 dvd's!

Christmas with my inlaws

Christmas morning we came back to Texas to spend the day with Tom's family. We had a really good time. It was a little sad though knowing it was one of the last times we'd all be together for a long time. Tom's mom, Pam moved to North Carolina December 31st for a new job. :( We all miss you so much, Pam!! Love you.


Opening presents

My little cowboy - wearing big brothers hat. :)

Taylor opening the Hedrick tradition, a Lifesavers book!

Pam with her three favorite grandkids... Well, her favorite granddaughter, anyways! :)

I guess there's a limit

I didn't realize there was a limit to the number of photos you can post at one time. I've been trying to upload 5 more pictures for the past 15 minutes but they never show up. Grrrrrr. :)

My apologies for how long it's taken. The pc has been up and running, I've just been too busy to sit down and post. (As a quick aside, I never knew till recently that you can post more than one pic at time!!!! I'm not very observant. :) You can imagine how NOT excited I was to sit down to post 20+ pictures!! Talk about tedious!!)

Anywho, here are the long awaited pictures! We had an awesome time with my family. The trip always seems longer on the way there. We're all just so excited to see everyone, I guess. :)

About 10:00 p.m. at a McD's along the turnpike. The kids were surprisingly chipper for as late as it was. We had Lola, our puppy, with us so we had to make frequent stops. :) That made it seem longer to Tom and I, but broke things up a bit for the kids. We didn't get there until about midnight. Then we stayed up talking and last minute wrapping until 4:30!!

Tom being silly with his little buddy. My sister Sophia is 4 and she has down syndrome. She's very finicky about who she lets in her personal space, but she just loves Tom - she hugs and kisses on him much more than she will with me! :) She is a wonderful blessing to our family!

Taylor enjoying the evening. She gets really lonely when we come home after being with her 11! aunts and uncles - many of whom are right around her age.

Phia with Papa. This is my mom's dad. Phia loves her Papa. :)

Chandler with Aunt Erika. Erik is the third oldest and one of my closest friends. She's 19 and a huge sweetheart. Love you, Erik.

Lola was a huge hit with all the relatives, but especially my great Aunt Rita. :) She used to have a toy poodle named Suzette. You can tell by watching her with Lola how much she misses her little dog. :(

Chandler opening his "choo choo twain set" - one of the many presents opened!

BIG bite of pie!
Left to right - my mom, Uncle Jack, his wife, Aunt Rita, Mimi (mom's mom) Papa (mom's dad), my dad, and the side of Aunt Holly's face. :) She's my mom's sister. We always have so much fun visiting around the table after dinner. It's one of my many favorite times of the holidays. :)

My cousins, Gessica and Shannon (Aunt Holly's daughters) and my sister just down from me, Vanessa. Ness is 21 and attends a small university nearby. She's majoring in the persecuted church.

A few more

Erika with our brother Noah. Noah's 15?? How old are you now? From the attention he gets from all the girls, he's a little hottie - which is such a weird concept for my to wrap my brain around!! Once in Walmart, a girl several years older than him came up from behind and kissed him right on the face!! She said he was just so hott she had to kiss him! My poor little brother turned bright red and just walked away. He's very shy around new people but he can hold his own around his four older sisters!! :) He's a very hard worker and according to our little sister, Hosanna, (she just turned 11 Wednesday) he's "very stable and wants to get married and have a family" as opposed to Jonah, 13, who she says "acts like a 2 year old and won't ever get married" !! Zan is our resident little philosopher. I couldn't believe she was just turning 11 - she seems like she's at least Jo's age. :) Or maybe as she says he's just immature! LOL. Sorry, didn't mean to ramble.

Papa and my little OU fan!




Cousins playing Cranium - clockwise from top - Hannah, she looks tired :), Gessica, Erika, Hosanna, Jonah, Ness, Shannon, and Noah.

Mimi with my other little OU fan. :)

Papa and Chandler are tired. :)

Well, that's it. I can't wait to go back and spend more time with my family. I miss them a lot. :)