Last post on Blogger

Blogger has been good to me. But now I'm on do newer, better things! :)

My genius husband has switched my blog to Wordpress - in blog world, it's the cutting edge ... at least that's what I'm told. :) While making all the required changes and updates, I wasn't able to blog over the weekend!! So hard!

Now it's ready to go - in all it's glory. It looks great and I had nothing to do with it! ;) A huge thank you to my wonderful hubby who spent hours finding a skin I liked, tweaking the layout, importing the archives and comments and generally doing it all, so all I'd have to do is a "moving" post. What a guy. :)

My new urls are www.reagh.org/wordpress OR www.thereaghfamily.com Please update your blogrolls accordingly. :) Don't want all the random clickers from your blogs to be sent to the old site! Also, all of you feed reader people will have to update too. And everyone else, make note to type in my new blog urls from now on - www.reagh.org/wordpress or www.thereaghfamily.com seems to be the easiest.

Thanks! Good-bye Blogger!

Surprise lake trip

After camps yesterday, I surprised the kids with a trip to the lake. We stopped briefly at the house to gather the necessary lake items and munchies. It was a perfect lake day, hot but breezy, making it nice and cool when you're in the water or wet sunning yourself. :) We had the lake largely to ourselves. It was so relaxing and peaceful. We spread out and spent the whole afternoon there.

At one point there was a group two pavilions over blasting obscenity-filled rap across the water.(!) I don't deny a person's right to their own choice of music, but it just makes sense not to have it around young ears. Thankfully, they were nice about it when I asked them to turn it down and they left soon after. You know, I always feel weird about saying something to people in those situations. (we've encountered more than one) But keeping silent isn't an option because I won't have my kids subjected to that type of thing. Thankfully, it's always been received well, people seem to generally be respectful of a polite request from a mom. :)

Putting the hat that Jen passed on to good use!

We love this lake because it's so kid friendly. They can go out 50 yards in every direction and the water is still only to their waists. :)

Taylor swam out to the buoy just to get to a place where she couldn't touch. :)


They all had a grand time!

After 10 minutes splashing in the water, this is where Aaron spent the remaining 31/2 hours. He was conked out!



Look Mom, I'm swimming! In ankle deep water... impressive! ;)

It's over

Yesterday was the last day of Chandler's soccer camp. No more running all over town everyday with soaring gas prices! Yay! :-P

Last day pictures- Relay race. Look at that runners form! lol

Getting in the thick of it to get the ball.

Receiving his end of camp reward bag from Coach Chris.

Certificate of Completion.

He did a great job. It was very hot most of the days but he worked hard and never complained.

Oh I forgot to write about this. The second day there were a few tears again when I had to drop him off and run to get him water. He was clingy and Taylor was even with him because her morning session canceled due to the rain. Anyways, later that evening, I was talking to him about that and how tomorrow I'd have to leave again to pick up Taylor but his friends and his friends moms would be there so we weren't going to have tears. His eyes welled up just thinking about it and he said he just didn't want me to leave. I asked him why and he told me that he kept thinking of the dream he'd had in Oklahoma. He said in his dream that I drove away from him and I never came back! He said he cried and called me over and over but I didn't listen. He had never told me about that. I was so sad for my boy -to think he'd kept that bottled up for so long and was afraid it might actually happen. His reaction suddenly made a lot more sense and I was just heart broken for him. It was such a horrible dream for a little boy to have!!

I gathered him up in my arms and assured him I would never, never leave him. I might be gone for a little while, but I would ALWAYS come back for him. He never needed to worry about that. I told him my kids are the most important thing to me in the world and I'd never leave them ever. I guess that was all he needed, a little extra love and reassurance. He did fine the next two days. :)

I think I take his happy-go-lucky nature for granted sometimes. He so rarely gets upset by things and when he does I don't give it the attention it needs. It usually takes something very important to upset him and I have to remember that. :/

I'm learning, ever learning how to be a better mom! :)

My daughter

Watching Taylor grow and mature reminds me of the book I read as a teen, Beautiful Girlhood. I didn't appreciate the book at the time, but now looking at Taylor, I have a new respect for it. She lives what is taught in that book without having read it, without even trying. It's the spirit of God within her. She is so full of grace, kindness, innocence and love. I love this girl so much. Thank you Lord for entrusting her to my care.

It just melts my heart

They're all tuckered out.

Water baby

Aaron's first time in the water. I think he liked it. :)

Picture of the day

My little shar pei baby.

Shutting down

I'm shutting the computer down for a few days..... or a day....


ok, the night.

I can't be unconnected for that long! The point is, my house is worlds behind thanks to my brilliant self who scheduled two kids for two separate soccer camps on opposite sides of town. I'm running ALL morning long and Taylor has an evening session. It's about to kill me. All I want to do in the afternoon is read blogs, blog, check email, nurse, and sleep. And that's about all that has gotten done the past 3 days. Ha, the hilarious part is I look at that list and think, well dang, that is a lot! Fortunately, I have gotten the kitchen and living areas straightened and dinner cooked each day... mostly.... ;) So I'm not a total slacker. BUT! Laundry IS piling up in bedrooms, the vacuum HASN'T been used in at least 3 days... and there's a funky smell emanating from my laundry room. I think there might be water under the washer. Yuck.

Who's the crazy person that said summer vacation is relaxing??? I actually have 3 weeks of a similar schedule since our church's VBS is next week and then Kid's Kollege at First Baptist is the following week! I'm a crazy woman. And I'd better get a handle on this house NOW before it takes over--- blog ya later!

Taylor's camp

Taking a snowcone break.

Taylor with her friends - old and new. I was the "cool mom" with the "sweet camera". Ha. They asked me if I worked for the newspaper and said I was too young to be a mom. lol Taylor was all, she's my mom! The girls were impressed. She got major cool points in their eyes and I swaggered off, thumbing my nose at all the uncool moms. ;)

Oh the girl drama. The little girl in the front has been very unkind to Taylor, saying mean things and not letting her be in "her group". Taylor has handled it very well. We talked a lot about it, she knows the right thing and has been kind to her, I don't think it would never occur to her to do anything else. (I, on the other hand, want to take the little snot out -- but that's the Mama Bear in me!! ;) ) Taylor is such a sweet girl and is never ugly to anyone. It's beyond me why some people just want to wound others

Good report today - Taylor told me that Danielle has been nicer to her and she even smiled at Taylor. It made Taylor's day to see someone turn around like that. I was so proud of her and told her so. She turned an enemy into a friend. And for in 9 year old girl land, that's no small thing. :) I'm so glad we've largely escaped the girl drama thing up to this point. :)

Soccer camp Day 1

Today was the first day of soccer camps for Taylor and Chandler. It was a mad scramble today at 7:40 when I realised that this week was soccer camps! I'd completely forgotten that morning and the night before. Oh and Taylor had to be at her field at 8!!! Amazingly we would have made it on time, but I went to the middle school instead of the jr. high! Ugh. Then it was off across town to Chandler's camp that started at 9. Thank goodness they have different start and end times!!

Taylor knew what to expect since she went last year. It was hard on Chandler - I had to leave him for a half hour while I went to pick up Taylor. He was so silent and sad, big ol' tears welling up in his eyes because he didn't want me to leave. I was so sad for him. He so rarely gets upset by anything, I was really at a loss for what to do. :) I'm very glad that he ended up having good friends on his team - that help him acclimate quickly and I was able to leave without anymore tears. :)

The far away shots are so bad....

I bet Josiah really got it bad on his head! It was blazing out there in the sun!

Taylor's camp does 2 hrs in the morning and 3 at night. It's really intensive and she's loving it. She has several friends from previous teams she's played on that campers too. I didn't get pictures of Taylor's camp until the evening session. Again with the missing memory card! :P And then they turned out so grainy.


Hopefully by the end of the week, I'll have better pictures. :)

Surprise visit

Our friends the Moores stopped by today to say hello. Their daughter is Piper, the little girl I watched for over a year. Then her brother and Aaron came along within 2 weeks of each other and I gave handling 4 kids and 2 newborns a shot, but it was too much, even for me. :) It was back in March that I stopped watching them so, we hadn't seen them in awhile. It was so nice to see them. We miss Piper and Maddox very much - the kids are always asking when they and Conlan are coming back. :) Tom and I also miss having Russell and Ginger around nearly everyday. It was always fun to chat and talk politics when they'd come to pick up the kids.

They even came with gifts! Ginger had made some awesome Amish Friendship bread - soooo good, Ginger! - and a starter so I can spread the love. And they brought this. It was meant to be a parting gift for me when I stopped watching the kids, but it wasn't ready in time. Isn't it just beautiful? I love that picture of the kids. When we have a portrait taken of the whole family, I'll put it in this. I really cherish this. It's one of those grab on the way out if there's a fire items. :)

Caught up

Finally. I go through spurts of blogging everything as soon as it happens then something like a house guest happens and then it seems like an overwhelming task to catch up and I procrastinate. I'm good at that. :)

Today started out a bummer but ended up good. The plan was to head to the lake for lunch. Things just weren't falling into place so we opted to spend an hour or two at the pool, only to find out they don't open for the season until Monday. :/ It turned out to be a blessing in disguise though that we didn't go anywhere. About midmorning I got a migraine that would not let up and it rained! I'm glad I wasn't out at the lake or the pool when either of those things happened.

I spent the afternoon on the couch, working on laundry and watching Little House, while the kids made a water slide in the backyard. Kids are so flexible when it comes to water. :) Around 4, my migraine medicine finally kicked in, along with some much needed energy, owing mostly to the caffeine in the medicine I think. I got up, scrubbed down my kitchen, dusted the living room, vacuumed the front of the house, and made dinner... and a cake to boot. :) Gotta love caffeine! I don't care where the energy comes from as long as I have it! (Good thing I don't have access to speed) I'm totally kidding, btw. ;)

Summer Reading Club

Yesterday after the homeschool skate, we stopped off at the library to peruse the books and get the two oldest signed up for the Summer Reading Club. We haven't been to the library much lately because I buy so many great books for the kids that they really don't need any supplimentary material. :) But we always do the reading club, so we checked out some to read. They were beyond excited. I must have done something right, because they both have an insatiable love of reading. :)

In 24 hours Taylor had already read 3 of her 5 books that she checked out! :) It's such a special bond that we share in our love for reading. I can't tell you how exciting it is for me to handpick the best books for her that I remember reading when I was her age. It's such a neat thing. I remember my daddy picking out one of his favorite books as a child, "Rascal" on one of our first trips to the library. I was a bit young for it, so I didn't appreciate it at the time. Now, it's such a sweet memory and the fact that I get the same chance with my own daughter makes it even sweeter. She actually read Rascal last summer and enjoyed it very much. :)

Chandler had fun picking out readers that he can read to himself. He's doing so well. It's a conundrum when it comes to his grade... I never know what to put down. In ELO, he was preschool last year since he wasn't 5 until December. But he did all the K material and more at home! So hmmmm. I think he'll just have to be both. A young 1st grader at home and a smart kindergartner in ELO and sunday school. :) When he gets around his friends, his maturity level tends to be in the younger grade. :)

5 months

Late again -- his birthday is the 28th. We remembered it though! It was the same day as my sister, Vanessa's birthday! We called and sang to Vanessa. I tickled Aaron's feet and sang to him. Happy Belated Birthday... to both of you! :)

I love his sour faces. He's cute even when he's being a toot, which is only reserved for pictures and the 3rd hour of being in the car. ;)

Neither one of them is very happy about this pose.... :)

He's found his feet. Actually he's been doing this awhile, it's just the first time I got a picture of it. I love it when babies find their feet. :)

I need to get a picture of him sitting up. He's doing so well. He rolls all over the room now! He's so smart! And fast! All my babies have been fast though. :) When he's on his tummy he scrunches up on his knees and then thrusts out in a superman pose. It's so funny. He'll be crawling in no time. His favorite sound right now is raspberries with his lips. He loves peek-a-boo. He laughs and laughs at me. The kids are enjoying interacting with him - anytime they make funny faces or surprise him he just cracks up... which in turn cracks them up and that cracks him up, and the laughter just goes on and on. It's contagious too, because I always end up laughing at/with them ;)

They are home!

My mom and Emma finally got clearance to go home on Wednesday! Praise the Lord. It was a huge answer to prayer that everything worked out. It was very stressful for everyone for there to be a question of whether the adoption would be approved or not by the state of Oklahoma. If they had not approved it, the adoption agency would have been forced to find another family! It's a good thing that it didn't come to that, because my family wouldn't have gone down without a fight!

It was such a nice visit, too bad it was under stressful circumstances. This is the first time we've ever had a week with Grammy all to ourselves :) (without me being on bedrest that is!) and likewise with Grammy having the grandkids without a dozen (literally!) aunts and uncles to have to share with. :) We really enjoyed having her. It was great having her here. I loved being able to actually "host" and not have to be taken care of. ;)

We said more than once that Aaron makes 2 of Emma! And they're only about 6 weeks apart!

Someone in Target asked us if they were TWINS!! We got a good laugh over that. Then we had even more fun explaining that she was his aunt!! The looks on their faces were priceless. :)

We didn't do a whole lot of running around since she had to be close for important phone calls, plus I was getting ready for the party a big chunk of them being here, then I was sick Sunday and Monday! However, on Tuesday we went to see a movie and went out to lunch, Grammy's treat. I protested, (my dad is still not working due to his work related injury) but she told me I had to let her do "Grammy" things once and awhile. :) I'm used to being independent and the indulgent grandma is not a role she gets to take on often since she has to many of her own small kiddos. :) It was fun to let her "Grammy" the kids.

These are from their last day here, Wednesday the very day they got clearance to travel out of the state. They were anxious to get home - none of my sibling there had even been able to meet her yet, except through pictures. They couldn't wait to hold her! So we decided to meet my dad half way so that they could get back that day instead of having to stay one more night here. We met him just over the state line. The kids were teary in the van about saying goodbye to grammy and Emma. So was I for that matter. I love hanging out with my mom.... we miss you, Grammy!!

In love with my new little sister. :)