Christmas LOVE

 Christmas tour!

Christmas Love!

 Christmas presents!

 

                                                                   Christmas Love!

 Christmas Excitement!

Christmas Love!

 Christmas wishlist!

Christmas LOVE!

 

I felt like amongst all the gift giving, parties, food, and fun the greatest gift is God's love! I hope you felt it yesterday and the whole year through!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas

Dear Santa,

 "All I want for Christmas is a mama cat and a maltese," says Malachi
"What's a Maltese?" ask Santa.
"A dog", says Malachi

"Does santa bring animals?" asks momma.

We will see!

"AHHHHHHH", cries Korra.
"I want a biiiiiike ahhhhh", cries Korra.

12

So I had big plans to post 12 of my favorite things today on 12.12.12, but lets be honest I really don't have time to think about 12 things I enjoy. Right now it just isn't about me, and that's ok. I am in the spirit of giving, right? Giving of time, energy, emotions, disciplines, joy, laughter, and life. Right now we are not where we want to be, but where God wants us to be. While I can't think of 12 favorite things in 12.12.12 I can think of a few blessings. A few things to be grateful for, a few things to enjoy!

While God does not promise it would be easy,  He does promise He will give us rest (Matthew 11:28-great chapter reference-Ha! God does have a sense of humor)!

Anyway so here is the list I started, but have not finished!
My favorites:
1.Cookie dough poptarts...! oh my guilty pleasure. I don't always let the kids have poptarts, but I sneak these babies for myself!
2. Audio Audrenaline's new song Kings and Queens
3. Love how this letter speaks my heart! oh how I want this for my babies!
4. This powerful story of love and beauty!

camping inside!

 My mom had this fabulous idea to pitch a tent in our spare room in the basement! To say the kids were thrilled is an understatement! Friday night we set up the tent and filled it with the air mattress and loads of blankets. My mom also hung several glow in the dark stars all over the basement walls and inside the tent. Then we popped lots of popcorn, grabbed a few sugary drinks, and some sour patches and headed down for a movie marathon! The kids stayed up way past bedtime and loved every minute of it!

Thanks mom, for helping grow such fond memories for my children! This is for sure one they will not forget.

School concert

 Our little performer had her first concert for school on Saturday night. She was such a ham ..of course. When she wasn't screaming she was doing something silly.

 Yup that is her the one with her mouth open!
Love it!

Good-bye adenoids

Today was a first for our little guy. Malachi has been struggling with a runny nose for years! After different medications and a few specialists we discovered he had swollen adenoids. Today Malachi said good-bye to those adenoids and hopefully good-bye to his constant runny nose! We went in at 10 and he was in for surgery at 11 out by 11:30 and in recovery by 12. He loved being able to watch soccer on tv! The nurse said he did great not a single tear and stayed very calm.

 After surgery we waited around a while, and by 1 we were ready to go home. You can tell from the pictures Malachi was not his quite himself, but was ready to go home when the time came. He was so thrilled to ride the wheel chair out to the car. The ride home wasn't so pleasant...sorry to the house down the road for our abrupt stop and the piles of throw up at the end our your drive. Reguardless of the ride home Malachi was so excited to eat his bagel (his choice) when we got home.

 He was also excited to see the counter filled with with his favorite things! He has already had a handful of visitors and we are on our 1st movie of the day. Looking forward to a relaxing recovery evening!

d

Thanksgiving weekend

 We had a busy and fun weekend. Thanksgiving day we first headed to church then to Dan's parents for a feast! The kids had so much fun playing with their cousins.

seriously best friends!
 

 I love that the kids had a kid table! They did pretty good only one spilled water, by my son!

 After lunch we took a walk to the beach. Love that we got to enjoy the beach in November

 Thursday night I headed out with my sisters for our annual shop till you drop Black Friday event, and we did just that. We shopped 8-8!  Next year I have to bring my camera as we were a sight to see. Friday I slept the morning and early afternoon away while Dan watched the kiddos. This was Dan's first Black Friday off..boy are we thankful for his new job!!! Friday night Dan headed up North hunting while I stayed back with the kids. My mom had the two older ones so I was able to get somethings done. Friday afternoon I headed to my parent's so my dad could help me with a Christmas project (ohh I am so excited about). Then we celebrated Thanksgiving with my family.

 Ring a round the rosie! These girls are a force to be reckoned with.

My only proof that it was Thanksgiving!

 

Our thankful tree with our thankful leaves. The leaves hold the names of every Grandparent we have, tts, Goliath, Jesus, and even a few friends made the board this year. Love this tradition and this tree will surely stay put as we go into the Christmas season. Happy Thankgiving!

my special guy

It had been a long time since I was able to spend a little one on one time with this little guy. So I made some plans for date night with a special man. Thanks to some awesome friends we were able to leave the others behind and enjoy a movie and some Mickey D's ("because that is McDonald's nick name and that is what Uncle Andy calls it"). It was nice to chat with Chi with out the distractions of little people.
On a side note, I think we have finally found the cause of Malachi's constant runny nose...he will be having his adenoids removed at the end of this month!!! I am hoping for better sleep and less Kleenexes around here after that!

Thankful

Artist: Malachi

 

Looking forward to spending November decorating our thankful tree. I think I could fill it right up today as I think about this past week. Here are just a few of my thanksgivings:
*a mom is who is handy enough to fix my washer
*a friend who takes time to hear me vent
*a sister who is willing to watch my kiddos while I help in Chi's class
*a neighbor who host a fun filled night for my kids
*a husband who helps and knows when I need a break
*a God so full of grace

Happy Thankful month!

Happy Halloween

 We started the day off with some pumpking pancakes!!! (orange food coloring and chocolate chip faces!)

 Malachi brought these little pumpkin candies to school for his teachers for "taking care of my little pumpking".

 Fancy pants displaying her Halloween wear!

Ending our night with lots of cousins and lots of goodies!
I would say that qualifies for one "HAPPY" Halloween!

a girl and her hat

Just because!

about 4

The hardest part about having four children in the house is:
not managing to get all four of them buckled into a carseat only to unbuckle them all because the baby needs a bottle.
it's not getting four children into pajamas, brushing their teeth, reading them a book, and tucking them all in only for the rounds of "I need a drink to begin."
it's not going to the grocery store with a carseat in the one part of the cart, one child in the seat, two children trailing, and no where to put your groceries.
it's not the numerous loads of laundry

Nope it is none of the above.

The hardest part about having four children is:
The stares you get, the looks of concern, or worse yet the looks of "get it together".
It's the "forgotten invitation" to normally invited events
It's the overwhelmed feeling people around you have

So yup we are a family of 6 for now, like it or leave it. ... that comment is for me and me alone. After all 4 is our number, not meant to be imposed on anyone else. Just for the sake of it..the best part of four is:
the endless entertainment, the endless hugs, and the endless love that feels our home day in and day out!

cabin in the fall

 

Here are a few fun pictures from the night at the cabin this past weekend. There is nothing like a cabin in the woods in the fall. Even in the rain we were still able to enjoy a few falling leaves.

They said it

I say it again and again how different Chi and Korra are, but you can so see it in what they say.
Malachi-
While driving in the car the other day he says, "Isn't it amazing that God didn't miss a single tree, he colored each and every leaf?"..ohhh he melts my heart!

Last week he came home from school with this paper:

                   front

                   back
The picture is him and one of the foster children we currently have. He told me that each week when he has the writing center he is going to make an "I love you" paper for a member of our family.

Now Korra... a breath of fresh air or more like hold your breath!
Dan asked Korra the other day if she could trade her tt in for anything what would it be. Her responds to be able to walk around Meijer by herself.
Then during Bible Study the other night we were talking about how God might use you. Korra thought that God might use her to get money...?

Tate turns 1

My nephew turned one a few weeks ago and my sister asked me to help her take a few photos...I think we ended up taking around 400...so we ended up with a few good ones!! lol!
Here are a few of my favorites:

 

 

 Can't seem to turn these two around, but had to display them!!!

I so love this little guy he is a breath of fresh air! A quiet, content, confident little man!

Happy Birthday Tatum!!

Imitating

Korrayah has always been one to imitate everything. If you want to know what goes on in our home watch her! This has been her latest:
I am in charge of the nursery at our church so Korra spends a lot of time in the church. Lately she has been pretending that she is a nursery supervisor and I need to bring my babies there to be taken care of. I sign them in and she puts a sticker on their back with their name and off I go to church. Once in a while a baby will need to be dedicated and she will have to do that on stage. Love it!
She also pretends to be the case worker for foster care. She pretends to ring the door bell then comes in and has me take a seat and sign a lot of paper work. Then she leaves and comes back with some kids. It cracks me up!!!
She is such a party!

Love her spirit, but I learned how closely she is watching me and those around her. I know that I need to be careful on who and what she is around.

Preschool

I can't believe this day has come and gone. I have a preschooler. I was so proud of Korra today. No tears, no fears, and no holding back. She's off to change the world of course not with-out her buddy Gibson!!!