My sweet kids

My sister-in-law kept the rest of the children while I took Josiah to the dentist the other week. She took them to a nearby park and took these pictures. And then when I got back she took some of Josiah and all of them together.

Autumn - she's looking so grown up already!

Mark - my sweet, adorable, contented littlest one.

Zach - the exuberant, LOUD, energetic, inquisitive, aggressive one

(Anyone have any tips for learning to use our "inside" voice???)

Janae - such a pleasure to be with - it will be hard for me to send her to Kindergarten!

Josiah - he's turning into a young man....I guess we'll soon find out about adolescents!

The 5 of them.

Some days they drive me crazy but I love them to pieces and I'm so thankful that God has placed each one of them in our family!

And I'm thankful for this man too....

Happy Thanksgiving!

Life goes on....

Last week was rather hectic. It seemed like all the errands piled up and needed to be done at once so Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, I left the house right after the kids got on the bus and returned for naps (sometimes a bit later naps than normal). We did get a lot accomplished and the children cooperated beautifully. If I'd clean the house and then go away every day maybe everything would stay neater. :-)

This week we have minimal plans....do the laundry, get groceries, the perpetual straightening up of the house. Wednesday the kids have a Thanksgiving Feast with school and a short program that Randy or I will try to attend. We hope to go to my parents church for a Thanksgiving Service on Thursday and then spend the day with my family and spend the weekend with Randy's family....but Josiah came home from school and told me that a friend has H1N1 so I am holding our plans lightly and plan to buy a turkey at the grocery store in case we are at home for the holidays. Josiah & Autumn have off school Thursday - Monday.

Tonight's thankfulness focus was "subjects we've studied in school" and "Blessings of daytime and nightime".

Now that I finally put the pictures from the camera

onto the computer..... I can write lots of posts with pictures again!

Saturday night we made "Sand Tarts". Lots of messy fun. And lots of tantrums from the 2-year-old who wanted to help but really could only with extreme supervision. I didn't take pictures of the tantrums! And actually, I didn't take these pictures at all. The 2 oldest took care of the photography.

Zach and Josiah waiting for more cookies to decorate.

Josiah cutting out cookies; Autumn waiting her turn.

Janae

Now it's Autumn's turn.

Extreme supervision!


Cookies waiting to go into the oven.

We neglected to take any pictures of the finished product. We each tasted 2 for a bedtime snack and they are now tucked away in the freezer for after Thanksgiving (provided I can keep other baked goods around until then so we don't dig into these prematurely).

Learning to Walk

Mark now routinely takes 4 steps or so before collapsing and crawling. He's such a delight and brings a smile to my face because he looks so pleased with himself.

The long overdue post

A month ago at our MOPS group we did a few crafts. I took pictures of the end results and am finally getting around to blogging about it. Unfortunately I need to work at my close-up shots as these got a bit fuzzy.

Station #1 - Card Making. I decided I really enjoy making cards when everything is all ready for you and cut and what not!

Station #2 - Miniature Flower Arrangement - Hollow out a mini-pumpkin. Insert a soaking piece of florist foam. Fill with mums, leaves, etc. Of course, our group was rather busy talking so by the time it was our turn to do this there wasn't much variety left....but it was fun....and on the cute side...until Zach (aka Curious George) decided to investigate....

Station #3 - Dipping your hands in paraffin. As I mentioned...we were very busy chatting and I never did get to this station.

We always have a lovely time... yummy, large breakfast... conversation.... devotions/speaker.... prayer... etc. At the last MOPS group we made Apple Pies. Delicious! Thursday is the next one and I think we're focusing on Thanksgiving as that is next week already. Anyway, so I do enjoy attending this group. I'm quite grateful for the wonderful child care and the time spent with the other women.

Yesterday's Birthday - Photos

Happy Birthday!

Happy 5th Birthday,

Janae!

Sunday Night

It's 8:35 and all the children are in bed...and from the sound of it, fast asleep. The boys missed their naps this afternoon and were very, very tired! Mark did get a few cat naps but that was it. This morning at church we had "Baby/Child Dedication" for the boys and another baby girl. It was very meaningful. We had lunch with Randy's extended family - Grandma, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, their children. We hadn't seen most of them in quite awhile and it was good to see them again.

So far still no flu or bronchitis or anything serious...just coughs and runny noses. I was kind of hoping we'd get it and be done before Thanksgiving! Speaking of Thanksgiving, today's "God's Gifts" that we discussed were "Things from Nature" and "Christian Books we have Read in the Past Year".

I'm reviewing the book "Pax Avalon" for the church library. It's in comic book form targeting teens. I found it fascinating--the parts I scanned. I need to read the whole thing yet.

Tomorrow and Tuesday the kids get out of school early for parent-teacher conferences. So I don't need to pack lunch for 2 days. Thursday I'm hoping to take Janae for pictures. She will be 5 next Sunday! I can hardly believe it....

Tomorrow is also "Neighborhood Play Group". And I need to wrap up the Foster Parent Association fundraiser and get the order placed. And of course....laundry, meals, baking, etc.

Normally I start baking cookies for Christmas the first week of November. I had read one time that if you bake one type of cookies per week starting after halloween you have a nice selection by Christmas (assuming of course that you bake other things to eat right away and stash these in the freezer). This year I have not started yet....but perhaps this week I will...or perhaps I will simply not bake as much....

A friend blessed us with several boxes of clothing to go through for the girls. How exciting! They were both thrilled to find new pairs of pajamas, pants, and shirts that will fit them and look nice too. Now I need to go through their old clothes and get rid of what doesn't fit well or is very stained.

Saturday night Randy & I had a "date night". Our friends kept the kids and we went to "Outback Steakhouse". Then we went to Lowe's and Giant. As normal, at the restaurant I asked for a box for what I didn't eat....and then walked out without it. It was nice to be out together and talk without little ears to overhear! :-)

Thanksgiving

I found a bulletin insert at my mom's from their church. It is published by www.AbundantLivingMinistries.org and titled "God's Gift List". Anyway, it challenged me to be more specific about what I'm thankful for. For instance, instead of saying "family and friends", see how many I can list. And I'd been thinking that so often recently, that every time I come to God I'm asking for something...there are so many needs! And so I decided that this month (and perhaps into December since I'm starting a bit late) we will focus on "God's Gifts" after we read our bedtime story. They had a list of 30 topics (one for each day of November). We started tonight with Day 1 - Family members and relatives (can we name them all?). We got through all of the cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents and great grandparents and then started on some great aunts/uncles and mommy's cousins and their 2nd & 3rd cousins and I decided we can do some more another time...there are a lot! Right now our end of the day routine is

1. Get pajamas on (baths some nights also)
2. snack and read a chapter of "Rainbow Garden"
3. brush teeth/bathroom
4. bed/prayers - read until 8:30 on school nights, 8:45 or 9:00 on non-school nights

So we are adding our "God's Gifts" topic into #2. I found a journal I had stashed and pulled it out so we can record everything. In bed tonight Autumn pulled her journal out and was making a list of what God made.

Josiah seemed rather tired this evening. Hopefully it's just because of the time change but several of his friends have been out with the flu so perhaps it's his turn....I guess we'll see how he is in the morning.

Zach's favorite word right now is "annying" (annoying). hmm....he must've heard that somewhere! :-) His current behavior issues include walking up to adults and smacking them. I am trying hard to eliminate this one! He is so fun and exuberant though that I can't stay upset at him for long. I love the way his eyes sparkle.

Mark has not taken any more steps alone but he is certainly getting around and into everything.

Janae was so excited today because we went to MOPS. She loves to go to her class and play with her friend, L. I think this is probably good for her since next year she goes to school.

This morning at MOPS we made apple pie. It was a nice dessert for supper tonight and there is one piece left which I hope to claim for breakfast in the morning. Tonight I made Lentil Soup which Randy & I like and the kids didn't eat very well...hopefully Randy will eat the leftovers! Mark picked out the ham and just smeared the lentils around. So much for hoping this would be a healthy (and inexpensive) meal to add to our diets!

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights." James 1:17.

Update...

1. a little man took his first few steps alone last night. He's still rather unstable but it won't be long until he's as fast as his older brother!
2. Tonight we're going to our church's family fun night...complete with dinner so no cooking for me tonight!
3. Randy left today for AL via MI....he should be home the end of the week sometime.
4. So far we have dodged the flu and bronchitis and whatnot that's going around...only a few coughs and sniffles...but it seems it's just a matter of time!