Thankful

It's funny this comes at a time when everyone is talking about what they are thankful for. The past two days have been exhausting. I spent most of Monday in bed, or the bath, or just laying on the couch with severe stomach and back pains. It seemed to pass by the evening and I was feeling much better. Tuesday came and I decided to head to the chiropractor so the kids and I ventured out, went there then to the grocery store. I was feeling pretty good minus occasional contractions. Then around 3 it really hit me and I had non stop contractions for an hour. I decided to head in to see my midwife, kids and all! Ross was working out of town for the day so I was not able to reach him until about 5pm when I was leaving the Dr.'s office. She said I had started dilating and with contractions she wanted me to head to the hospital for monitoring, testing and an ultrasound. Poor Ross was still two hours away, however I'm pretty sure he made it back much sooner! I am so thankful my mom was still in town and I took the kids to my sister in laws and brother's house where my mom and Katie fed them dinner and took care of everything.
I have to say God is sure amazing. At the clinic she was really concerened for pre-term labor and I'm only 27 weeks so we were really concerned too because things were not looking very good.
After two hours of monitoring, testing and an ultrasound she was amazed at my results. Not only was I no longer dilated, but my contractions stopped, and my cervix was longer than they could have even hoped for in a normal pregnancy. Praise God! Thank you to all who were praying for us. I was sent home able to kiss my little ones goodnight and rest. I have been instructed to just take it easy, but no bed rest, yay! So I'm doing my best, but it's hard with 4 little kids to "take it easy" I'm not even sure what that means. There is so much to be done! So I'm trying, sitting here on the couch and enjoying just watching the kids play, I love their imaginations! This picture was posted by a friend of mine of facebook and I thought it appropriate. :-)

Faith of a Child

"At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, "Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said, "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as his child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven..." ~ Matthew 18:1-3

But Jesus called for them, saying, "permit the children to come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all." ~Luke 18:16-17

The past week has been a really rough one. This pregnancy is really starting to get to me with all of the hormones and the wear on my body. Along with the kids having a rough week this was not a good combination. My patience has been on the negative end of the scale. Every morning I wake up and think, "okay today HAS to be better." and before 9:00 disaster has already struck. Toys strung about, kids fighting, my house feels like it's in complete chaos. Yesterday was no different as I think I spent most of my day in tears more frustrated that I kept crying for NO reason than anything actually happening.

I woke up this morning hoping for a new perspective and I think I was given one, by my 6 year old. She truly has the kindest heart I've ever seen. As we sat down for breakfast this morning I remembered something she said to me last night as we were loading up to go to the library. "Mom look at all the stars. You know I think those three lights that were following us on Halloween were Angels." Huh was all the more thought I gave that statement as I hurried them into the van. Then this morning I recalled what she said and asked her about it. Her response and such simple faith blew me away. " Yes I saw three lights, they weren't like the stars they followed us like they were glowing. I think they were God's Angels protecting us. You know mom angels don't wear white robes and have wings." I asked, well why didn't you say anything to me that night? And she says,"I did you said you couldn't see anything." WOW! It really made me stop and think this morning am I really blind? Am I really in such a hurry that I don't see God's work in my life and his everyday blessings? I need to slow down and have faith of a child, see things through their innocent eyes. We can easily thank God for the major things we see good and bad, but what about the things we don't see? What about the things that we never even knew he saved us from?

So today I have a new perspective, to slow down and thank God for my blessings. Be truly thankful to have a houseful of little ones that yes cause chaos and messes all over.

"Behold, children are a gift of the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them;they will not be ashamed when they speak with their enemies in the gate." ~ Psalm 127: 3-5

I will choose to be thankful for my husbands job instead of be frustrated he works so much. I will choose to be thankful for all of my children instead of complaining that I don't have any down time and a messy house, always. Thank you Lord for helping to open my eyes to see you at work.

Monday, Monday, Monday

Oh Monday started out so great. Got up early, had a great breakfast Asher woke up dry in his first night of Big Boy underwear...things were looking good. Were is the key word here. Let me give you a glimpse in our morning. Everyday after breakfast we start with our day with story blanket time. This means each child gets their own blanket, their own books and I get about ten minutes of reading my book of choice before I read to each of them individually.
Today was no different and they were doing great, until Mason decided after his book he was done and he went downstairs. I still had to read to Riley so we kept on and he was down there for only about 5 minutes. And this is where it started...oh where to begin...books were all off the bookshelf, and they have A LOT of books. Legos (which I had already said NO you may not get them out you didn't pick them up the last two times) they were dumped scattered all over, light bright pieces dumped from their container...see where this is going...army men dumped from container kicked around. It seriously was like a monster took him over and he just started dumping and throwing stuff and did it very quietly because I can hear everything in this house. To say I was mad would be an understatement. So I decided he lost his one on one school time and he would spend it cleaning up his mess. Which still is not complete, but at least I won't be stepping on legos.
In the meantime I tried to start school with Madalyn and Riley all while being interrupted by our "20 minute potty timer" for Asher since we started potty training yesterday. During this time, I as nicely as possible, tried to encourage Mason to clean his mess.
Me, "Where are you going?"
Mason, "upstairs to go potty."
Well okay I guess that's a good reason. Until I came upstairs to find him getting into the brownies on the stove top from yesterday! And on my way up what did I find...a game he'd taken out and dumped all the pieces. AHHHHH! So heck with this off to bed he went to wait until lunch was ready. whew I'm thinking It's noon and I've almost made it to nap time, maybe after a good rest things will turn around. So I sit down to take a breather and write this haha only to find Asher has slammed his hands on my keyboard of my brand new laptop and now everytime I press the "M" key it minimizes the internet. oh man really? Come on God...help me out a little because everytime I think my patience has been tested to the end...here is comes. So after ten minutes I get that fixed and begin typing and get a cup of water dumped down my back..oops sorry mom says Mason.
Monday, Monday, Monday...please get better after lunch because we have lots of school to do still, a playroom to clean AGAIN and daddy is working late.

Just a glimpse...some days are so great and we have so much fun and others...well we are lucky we all survived the day and I'm thinking today is one of those days. I will feel successful if we're all still breathing and fed come bedtime tonight.

:-)

Disney on Ice

Two years ago we took the girls to see Disney on Ice. This year they were back with all of the Princesses and their Princes. So Asher got some special Grandma and Papa time and Ross and I took the other three. It was so much fun. All of the little girls usually go dressed like princesses and this year I figured would be no different. However, Miss Madalyn was hilarious about it. In the monring she got dressed and said, "Mom I think I will wear this to Disney on Ice tonight." Which I responded with, "Well don't you wan to dress like a princess?" Her response..."Mom no matter what I'm wearing I always look like a princess." Haha. She then went on to explain how we are all God's little princesses no matter what we're wearing. Love that girl!

So off we went with a group of friends, 17 total and wow did we have great seats! 100 end level and only about 10-12 rows off the ice!! Definately will be using group sales again if we go next year.

Rapunzel & Snow White (she decided to dress up after all)

Our Knight

The Pumpkin Patch

We were so lucky this year to get to go to Bizi Farms Pumpkin Patch with the girls Classical Conversations homeschool group. This meant we were able to go without the large crowds and it was half the price!! Can't beat that! The kids had so much fun feeding the animals, climbing the hay pyramid, running the the hay maze, riding the tractor and picking out pumpkins. We were lucky too that Ross was able to come along for the ride and get off of work early. Which was good because these kids picked out huge pumpkins!

Age 3 1/2

Age 5

Age 6

He Was hilarious feeding the goats

And this right here is why Mason sees a chiropractor, the kid really thinks he can fly

Happy Halloween

10/28/12
HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Wow for some reason this seemed to sneak up on me this year. I was planning in the back of my mind for a month what we were going to do for our annual kids party and what the "family theme" would be this year. Then came the week ahead and I was still hunting for everyone's costumes. Thank God for my mom who helped run to the store in hunt for the perfect green sweats for Asher's Costume. This years theme...Super Hero's! They were so cute. Madalyn was Wonder Woman, Riley was Super Woman, Mason was The Flash and Asher was Super Why from his favorite cartoon. Ross of course insisted on being the villian and we were able to put together a fantastic costume to be The Riddler. Mine however was a little more complicated. Since I'm  5 1/2 months pregnant I barely fit into any costumes. And when they say one size fits all, that does NOT include pregnant people. So I dressed as a queen, the queen of all the Super Hero's and the villian of course.
On October 28th we had our annual Halloween Party for the kids. We painted pumpkins, bobbed for apples, had a family picture area set up, played a pop the ballon game for a prize and who can eat the donut from the string the fastest. We had a blast and after we all ate some soup I had prepared in the crockpot and then the kids watched a movie downstairs.
On Halloween we decided to trick or treat in our neighborhood then headed over to Aunt Katie and Uncle Jared's neighborhood to see our cousins Luke and Leah, or Elmo and Snow White. They were soo soo cute! See the pictures below if you don't believe me. :-)
Now we are just trying to recover from all the sugar and it's been a really rough couple of days, but we are surviving. God has given us an extra sprinkle of patience to handle the meltdowns.



The Flash Painting his pumpkin



Witches Brooms

Toss the ball in the mouth

                                                                  

If it looks like a monster do not enter!

Pop the balloon to see what prize you get!

Dad's even got in on the fun!

This one made me really laugh because he wasn't playing just kept trying to eat her donut!

Madalyn & Ainsley

Super Why! Painting away. He really liked this.

                                              

Girls making Rice Crispy Pumpkins for the Party!

Here are a few shots from Trick or Treating