Tuesday, August 26, 2008

The Tooth Fairy...Again?

Yes, so soon! He pulled the other one too! Now there are no front top teeth! He is so cute, and he talks a little funny too! I love it! He did it right before bedtime-again, luckily the "Tooth Fairy's" husband just happened to have a five on him!

Sonogram

I could not wait to find out! We went in for our 20-week sonogram, took Grace and Ethan with us, Keith didn't want to miss school (what?!) and Zach napped at a friends house. Crossed legs and so much movement made almost impossible to tell, but, it's a girl! We are so excited, we were hoping! I cried, Grace, is SOOOO EXCITED, we all are. Rob said, this is going to be a whole new ball game! Yes indeed! He's never taken care or really been around a girl baby before. Believe it or not, Keith was even sweating it a little, he really wanted another sister too! So we are all so happy and making plans for a little baby girl angel to fill are arms! I compared sonogram pictures and her profile looks very much like Grace's, could I possibly get another look alike? Maybe this one will get my hair color too though. I am three for three in the blonde department! Where is that coming from? Blue eyes too! Everyone knows that I'm hoping for some curls. We've only got about seventeen more weeks till we see her and find out! Crap, seventeen weeks till Christmas too! Did you know that? I haven't even started shopping!

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Grace's First Day of Home School

Let's just say, not how I imagined it to go! It went something like this...

..."I don't want to get up"...
(grunts and groans)
Prayer
Pledge of Allegiance
Time for Bible class
..."Workbooks are stupid!"...
(tapping a pencil)
..."I'm not smart enough to do this work!"...
(crying)
..."This is going to take FOREVER!"...
(more crying)
..."Can't I just get held back a grade"...
(a lot more crying)
..."FINE!"...
(5 minutes later)
..."Done Mommy."

Can I just say that between my pregnant hormones and her nine year old hormones, the morning did not go well! I am going to sleep tonight praying for a better second day!

I have, through a lot of prayer and thought- both head and heart, decided to put everything else aside (MOPS & bible study) and focus on getting this home school thing down. I am going to find an evening bible study/support group that will not take away from school time. This job, I'm learning, maybe just beginning to grasp, is very important. More than even before I am having a huge impact on the way these little adults turn out, I don't want to mess it up!

It has become even more apparent how important prayer and personal bible study is EVERY DAY to being prepared for this job I have. I'm nervous, excited, scared and challenged by what is in front of me and if I knew the extent maybe I would be terrified. For now, everyday, every step, in the Lord's hands and I can do it!

The other subjects went a little better, but I hope I will see daily improvement, okay, weekly? I'm staying positive-daily! Together, we'll all get this thing down, I just have to give it time!
A great feeling is that I have never been so sure that I am doing the right thing for my children as I am right now. This will be great-for all of us!

Fancy Bathroom

Okay, my guest bath is finally done! I really like the way it turned out! I had an itch to decorate something and I touched up some paint in the kitchen and that didn't do it for me so I went digging to finish up the bathroom-finally! I don't want to make anyone sick, but I found all stuff in my attic to do it with. Some old fall flowers, and raffia, the curtain panels I had bought for $5 for the living room, decided I didn't like them in there and lost the receipt before I could return them, and then I used some craft paints from my little sis to paint the hydrangea and vines on the walls. O, darn it, I forgot, I found the pillar at a garage sale down the street last week for $1!

The Tooth Fairy Strikes Again!

Ethan and the Tooth Fairy had a date Saturday night. Though it may not have been ready, that tooth came out! He worked on it and worked on it for two days, and all by himself, yanked it! A look of amazement came over him, he did it! Zachary thought he should try to get one out too, but he cringed at the sight of the bloody loose tooth in Ethan's mouth! None the less, he needed his picture taken of his mouth too!Sure enough Sunday morning-bright and early Ethan came running down the stairs to wake me up and show me the money the Tooth Fairy had left him! Words cannot express how I felt at that proud moment at 6 AM when I had almost two full hours of sleep left!
I will say that Ethan is so cute missing his tooth, it makes me smile every time he cheeses at me!

Zachary Turns 2!

Well, a far cry from Keith big 1-4 was Zachary's second! Lions and tigers and bears! What a great time we had! Cake and ice cream and lots of little people running all over! I have to say, the volume was about the same though! It rained, so everyone was inside and that was fine, the playroom saw some action, that's for sure! Hot Dogs and Cheetos for dinner (Zach's favorite-next to Mexican food!), and a lion cake, made by Mommy with another favorite -ice cream! Presents seemed boring when the first thing to open was a card, then he figured it out and what fun that it really was! He had to have a Razor Scooter! So Mommy and Daddy got him one of his very own!

Keith's Surprise War

This year the kids went on vacation with Nana and Papa to San Diego for a week they did awesome things like a hot air balloon ride, Lego Land, and Sea World, just to name a few! They had a great time and bonus, we planned a surprise party for Keith's 14 the day after they got back! It worked out perfectly, he was very surprised! We had a war theme-water war-that is! What a great time everyone had with that! Not even poor little Zachary was safe!
Girls are not off limits either!

The pictures speak a thousand words! Pretty much everyone ended up at some point in the kid's pool! NO ONE was dry 30 minutes in! Keith, begged for a tattoo, but received 14 year old gifts like gift cards to Best Buy and the long-awaited PSP! Happy 14th Keith,
We love you!

Rolling Hills Wildlife Adventure

Rob and I took a trip with all six kids to the Rolling Hills Wildlife Adventure Zoo and Museum! One Monday when Rob was off, he said why don't we? And I said yeah! We, had such a great time, what a great zoo and museum, the kids agreed, it was really fantastic! All the animals, in spite of the heat, were out to play. We came at feeding time to, you could say that we kind of followed the dinner wagon around. They were all happy and putting on a show that seemed just for us! The picture at left is a picture of a Mandrill. A particular Mandrill took a fancy to Zach and followed his every move and even acted upset when one of the other kids stepped in front of her so she couldn't see him anymore! They a had a game of hide and seek going! In the heat we were privy to an up close seat of the lions enjoying their blood ice blocks too! Boy, do they love that! They purred like kittens! Like I said, we visited the museum there also, a must in our opinions! It is the best display of taxidermy we've ever seen. Very impressive, and they had even more species of animal in there than in the zoo. I have to say it did make Zach a little nervous because there were no fences between us and those tigers and he wasn't convinced that they weren't still alive! The day was very hot, but we were impressed by all the shade we found to stand and watch animals under, it made it quite pleasant really, and the water misters that they had throughout the park kept the kids wet and cool all day! We had a great time! By the way, you get a big discount for being a member of the Friends of the Topeka Zoo too!

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Grace Visits the OBGYN

Not for her, with me, for mine! Recently I took her along, mainly to hear the baby's heartbeat. But I always wanted her to feel included and understand a little better what was taking place. We looked through a magazine from the Dr.'s office that showed pictures of the inside, micro cam stuff. We talked about how the baby lives and grows in my tummy for the 40 weeks it there and the stages that things happen in. She is very interested in these things. So off we went to my appointment. She met the man that delivered her nine years ago, the wonderful Dr. Breck Edds, and to his amazement and mine, had some very intelligent questions to ask him about what exactly was going on. For example, she asked, "How much room does the baby have right now, I mean, how big, exactly, is Mommy's uterus right now?" I stifled a laugh, I was so amazed, I don't know why, she is so brilliant like that. Dr. Edds looked at me, wide eyed, and answered her to the best of his ability and she was satisfied. All in all she had a great time and would love to go again sometime. I was so glad to share that with her. Now for the tough question, she wants to know why some people don't believe that a baby is alive until it's born? And if we tell them that they are, won't they stop killing them? My sweet girl, I wish that it were that simple. She had heard the word "abortion" and asked what it meant one evening in the car. I was the sad recipient of that question and proceeded to as gently as possible explain the meaning, I wish there were not such cruel things in this world to try and explain.