Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Sick day

Today we took off school since Taylor is still throwing up. :P You wouldn't know it by looking at her though. :) She's been living it up with her dolls on the couch. They're sick too, but feel well enough to have their hair done. :D

This morning we watched Bridge to Terabithia together. Sick days always call for a family movie. Then I bathed the boys and cleaned the bathroom all in one fell swoop. :) I floated Aaron's baby tub in the bathwater so I wouldn't have to do him separately later. It was quite a sight. I would have taken a picture, but I'd already put Aaron in the water and there was no way I was leaving him with the other boys just itching to "help" bathe him! hehe

Now Chandler is getting his 20 minute fix of DS with Brayden looking on. :) 20 min is the limit we've set on gaming devices. They each have to pick between Wii, DS or a computer game after their chore, school, and reading are complete. (Today being the exception with no school and me doing all the chores. :P) Sometimes they get extra wii time if we're having a family wii night. :)

Well, I'm off to get the vacuuming and mopping done while they're occupied.... Now if only I could get Aaron to watch Chandler that intently too.... :)

Sweeties.

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Sickos

So we've had a bug since Saturday. It hasn't been awful, but it hasn't been fun either. Brayden threw up and had the other stuff Sat and into Sunday. I was going to just keep him and Aaron home from church (Aaron still has a stuffy nose) but we decided to play it safe and keep everyone home. I'm so glad we did. Sunday night, Chandler threw up most of his dinner and overnight threw up the remainder. :-P Then last night Taylor threw up in her bed. Poor girl. On the bright side, other than throwing up once or twice, they seem normal -- no fever or tummyache! I'm praying that it stops with those three. So far Aaron is doing fine.

Well, I'm off to clean bathrooms, vacuum, and sanitize all hard surfaces. And nurse the baby, oversee school, make lunch, fold the growing mountain of clean laundry on the loveseat, plan and prepare dinner, nurse the baby again... The list never ends. :)

Monday, January 28, 2008

One month old!

I can't believe that Aaron is a month old today! These past few weeks have flown past. It's been such a joy getting to know Aaron and watching him grow. He was already up over 9lbs at his 4 week checkup Friday - what a chunk! He's getting lots of rolls and his eyes are turning a beautiful olive green. He's starting to look more and more like Chandler, I think.

Look at that face! What a cutie!

We started back to ELO almost two weeks ago. It's been going really well. The older kids love going and were so thrilled to be back. It gives them a creative outlet and they love being with their friends. We usually go to to Chickfila or Double Dave's for lunch with several of our friends afterwards. I look forward to the fellowship of that more than ELO itself, I think. :)

Monday we start the homeschool choir that Dana leads. I'm super excited about that. The kids are going to have a blast. I loved children's choir at church growing up and that's one thing I've missed in our church. I took them to the First Baptist choir once, but not knowing anyone else there, I wasn't very comfortable dropping them off like that. I'm so glad our homeschool group has a choir now! (Thanks Dana!)

School is on track - surprising, considering all that's gone on this year! We haven't taken much time off and that's really helped. Taylor is flying through all of her books and is developing a big love of .... MATH!! She doesn't get that from me! Tom excelled in math so I'm glad he'll be there to help her with the higher stuff. ugh. :) She reads several books a week - aided by the book night light we stuffed in her stocking. It was one of her favorite gifts! :)

Chandler is halfway through the learn to read book. I haven't been overly diligent with him, knowing that I started him very early, but he's an insatiable learner. Even on the days we don't do a lesson, he still reads to himself out of his lesson book or the many readers we have - whether it's on his level or not. :) He's also taken up writing out his his letters and numbers on his own. I haven't worked on writing with him thinking it would only frustrate him. He's learned so much without me doing very much at all. He'll be ready for 1st grade next semester at this rate. I wasn't sure about doing K with him so young, but there hasn't seemed to be any problems at all.

Brayden is knows all the preschool stuff... again, not by much that I've done! He learns a lot from the older two and from his own love of learning. He comes to me with the magnedoodle wanting to learn shapes. Very quickly I had to go to more advanced shapes because he knew all the regular ones!

I'm trying to gear up in my mind for taking on 2 more kids in a few weeks. I know I can do it but I want to make sure it's what the Lord wants and will bless. We'll still be doing all the normal things we do, ELO, piano, library and park trips, and now choir. It's quite a lot. Tom's left it totally up to me - knowing he'll support me in whatever I decide is comforting.

God's been doing many things in our lives over the last few weeks, both as a couple and individually. Last week wrapped up our church's Prayer Advance - a time of dedicated prayer and intersession for the church needs and the needs of the body. It was a very refreshing time for both of us spiritually. Tom was able to go up everyday after work and I went with the kids several times too. It's amazing what a dedicated time of pressing into the Lord can do! Tom and I have been able to talk about what God's doing and I feel so connected to him again. We just hadn't had time to focus on each other in awhile with everything that's been going on. I'm loving having our time again and feeling so overwhelmed with love for him and from him. What a gift! :)

We'll be going to Oklahoma in a few weeks to pick up the beef we buy from my dad. And all of my family who hasn't seen Aaron yet will get to meet him! This trip will be short - just a weekend. The kids and I are going back up during spring break to stay for a week. Tom is going on a mission trip to Ukraine that week in March with some men from our church to help Bruce Crowe finish the house their family bought there. The Crowes are moving there in May to be missionaries. It's such a great opportunity for Tom to serve in a capacity that he was made to do and that he loves! So while he's gone, we'll be in Oklahoma. I figured it'd be more fun than sitting around here missing Tom! :)

We'll also be in OK in May! I just remembered that. Hannah and Noah are graduating together. There's about 54 CHEF graduates this year. It's always fun to see the families from my old homeschool group. Since many of my graduating class have multiple younger siblings, each year is like an unofficial reunion. :)

Ooh, hey. I've lost all but the last few lbs of my pregnancy weight!! I'm happy! Yay for breastfeeding! :) Of course it'll be a a little while before I'm back to the tone I was at before. But Tom and I are starting a training program together soon. We both want to run in the Dallas marathon at some point. :) What a goal! He's going to train me hard (being a Marine!) and I'm so ready! It's going to be fun working out together. It's something we've always wanted to do, but never made time for.

Ok I think I'm done with the updates! :) It's been a full month! Enjoy the pictures.

Oh the dimples!

Big boy

Friday, January 25, 2008

Big helpers

Chandler's discovered that Aaron likes to suck on fingers. :)

I love this because it's what he always does when he holds Aaron.... he nuzzles his face against Aaron's and whispers things like "It's ok, baby... I love you a lot, Aaron!" He's sooooo sweet.

Mr. Aaron was a little upset by the time Taylor got her turn. She is so helpful with him. If I can't get to him right away, she'll always go to cuddle him without being asked. He really likes his big sister!

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Partay!

Our good friend Jo had his birthday party last Friday. A big crowd of us all went to see the Pirates Veggie Tales movie at the theatre and then met up for cake afterwards. The kids had so much fun. Dana made an awesome Transformers cake -- everyone wanted to eat the buildings first!

"Blowing" out the imaginary candles. :)

Boys ... oh, and one girl table :)

The girls wanted to eat outside in the snow - "to keep their ice cream cold" :)

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Friends

Taylor with her friends Bronwyn and Camilla at the party.

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Haircuts

Look at those eyes! What a charmer!

And the cheeseball. :)

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Snow!!

This was a whole week ago, but you know. Life has been happening at an alarming rate lately. Snow in Texas! We were all so excited. We all rushed outside to catch it on our tongues and dance. :) We all forgot shoes - we didn't feel the cold for that 2 minutes of snowy joy! Actually, it was more like sleet when these pics were taken, but we didn't care... and it turned into big fluffy snowflakes just a bit later!

Aaron's first snow!

And Brayden's too! He's so particular about things... he wasn't crazy about it landing on his sweater. lol

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Thursday, January 17, 2008

Baby Maddox

Piper has a brother! Ginger had her baby, Maddox, on Sunday. Aaron and I went to visit them last night. It was cute seeing them together. Maddox is so big - he weighed 9 12! (I think) He looks older than Aaron in size.. though the redness gives it away that he's only a few days old. :) He's such a cutie and Piper is crazy about him. She enjoyed Aaron too. She would bounce his arm up and down and babble to me. I've missed her! It was great to see their whole family.

These are pics that Ginger took with her camera. I didn't think to bring mine - so unlike me! :)


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The many faces of Aaron





I have the cutest baby in the world!

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Lotso'pics




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My baby turned 3!

I really didn't mean for Brayden's birthday to slip past without a post. Poor Brayden. That's life these days with 4. It's fun but I'm busy 24/7. No time for blogging. I think I'll get into more of a routine soon with nursing and have more down time (don't give up on my little corner of the blogoshpere!)

So yes, Brayden had a birthday Monday, though you wouldn't know it by talking to him that day. He insisted that it wasn't his birthday, that he was still 2 and any time I said Happy Birthday to him, he'd say, Happy Birthday, Mommy! It was funny. And a little annoying after awhile. I finally got him to agree to being 3 before he could have pizza. :) It wasn't much of a celebration, I keep telling myself when I get it together, I'll have a party for both boys together.... but I don't know WHEN that is exactly. lol As for Taylor's birthday, I'm taking her and her friend to Dallas to visit the American Girl store and bistro as a special birthday girls' outing. I'm excited about that, but again I don't know WHEN it's going to happen!! :)

Here's Brayden on Monday acting silly for the camera. :)


So sweet!

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Saturday, January 12, 2008

My little sleeper

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Saying goodbye

The kids were so sad to see Erika leave yesterday. So was I. :) It was so wonderful having her here. I tried my hardest to convince her to apply to Kilgore and move here instead of going to Tulsa's community college, but I don't know if I succeeded. :) I also introduced her to the nicest, Godly, cute guy that goes to our church... I just know there were sparks. ;) I'll get her back to Texas somehow!

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Monday, January 07, 2008

Sweet baby boy

Just after his bath yesterday. I love his outfit. I'm always on the lookout for ones that aren't baby blue. It's so boring!

Anytime he's just falling asleep he smiles a lot! I caught a few of those sweet smiles today.

This one was the best of his smile but it was quite blurry. Look at that dimple!

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