Sitting Up

Madeleine has been trying to go from being on her belly to sitting up. She sits great when she is put in the sitting position. She can get almost on her bottom, but can't figure out how to get that arm out from under her and hand off the floor.

Yesterday she managed to get to sitting by herself once. Today she did it several times. She is very excited and proud of herself when she does it. She is just doing all kinds of new things lately!

Happy Thanksgiving

Today I have so much to be thankful for, I don't even know where to start! So, I guess I will start where it ALL started. I am thankful for a wonderful, forgiving Lord that knows what is best for me, even if I don't always agree with his timing. But, as I posted here, he knows what is best and when the time is right for everything.

I am so blessed with a great husband. I have spent almost half my life with him. When noone else believed in what we had, we stood firm, trusted in God (and each other) and made it through. I am thankful for every struggle we have encountered as a couple. Our love, trust and family is stronger for it.

I am also blessed to have five awesome kids. We are ALL thankful for our beautiful, surprise addition to the family this year. I could not thank God enough for trusting us with these precious gifts! I am also very thankful for the health of ALL my family!

And, for family and friends, even though we don't get to see them often.

Everything else, like a steady job for my hubby, getting to stay home with my kids, extra money and "things", etc, are just extras in our lives. We are still thankful for them but they are not what is important.

I could not ask for more in my life. I have been blessed beyond belief. I don't know what I did to deserve all of this in my life, but I try daily not to take it for granted!

It was so awesome at our Thanksgiving lunch today (and every year) to have my kids ASK if we can go around the table and say what we are thankful for before they say the prayer. And, I love listening to the two year old say his own prayer.

It is the little things in my life that remind me how lucky I am!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Daddy's Little (7 Month Old) Angel

Here are some ramblings:
Madeleine turned 7 months old last week. She is seeming less and less like a baby :(

She is a busy little girl right now. She is into everything. She sits by herself and is working hard at sitting up on her own from lying down. She is crawling everywhere and mouths everything. She still loves to be carried in her Baby Bjorn and she doesn't really care if she is facing in or out.

She went hiking for the first time Monday. We took a 2 mile hike at a Boys Scout trail. She absolutely had a blast. We (she and I) "flew" a lot of the trail. She was facing out in her Baby Bjorn. I would hold her hands out and run up the trail while making flying sounds. She was laughing so hard!

She is working on tooth number 2 right now. She does not teeth too well. She gets cranky, runny nose, etc.

She has also decided she does not need to nap much, if at all. If her brothers are home the only way she will sleep is in the car. Obviously she is WAY too young to not be napping!!

She is eating great, but she wants what we have. For example, tonight we had steaks and baked potatoes. She would not leave my baked potato alone. She got mad every time I took a bite!

She is finally starting to grow some hair. Her hair is so funny right now because it stands straight up all over her head.

She still loves playing peek-a-boo, and initiates the game herself, but who can refuse. She has started clapping, still saying Dada, but yesterday started saying MAMA!!!! YAY!!!!!

I hate that she is growing up so fast, but at the same time I can't wait to watch her grow!

She gets mad if Daddy comes home and does not immediately go to her. She smiles when she hears or sees him. I LOVE watching them together.

I weighed her yesterday....15 pounds 1 ounce.

Pretty Pretty Princess

:)

The Class Clown

Bryce is definently going to be a class clown. He does ANYTHING for a laugh. He chose this "outfit" from his sisters room to wear. You notice he is posing. The more laughs the better!!


Not our proudest moment, but man this is a blackmailer pic!!

Isn't She Lovely

Have I mentioned lately what a WONDERFUL man I have?

We recently got a cheap espresso machine. It took some time to make and meant me standing there over it the entire time (and was pretty loud), but it made an espresso!

I got a Christmas present early yesterday. He wanted to get me a good espresso maker that did more on its own. But since he knows NOTHING about coffee, he wanted me to pick it out. So, we went out on a mission and this is the beauty I got:
this is the milk steamer/frother
espresso machine


We were kind of leary about getting it because you can't use your own coffee. You have to buy THEIR little capsules. But the store we went to let's you try out the maker and coffee. Even though it was NOT my white chocolate mocha (or sweetened at all) it wasn't bad, so I figured it had to be pretty good.

Holy espresso machine...I am in heaven. Now, I am a HUGE Starbucks fan. I like this coffee MORE than Starbucks! It makes my white chocolate mocha in less than two minutes! And clean up is SO easy. Most importantly though, it is SOOO YUMMY!!

I told you he was wonderful. But to make him more awesome, he got me a Thanksgiving present too. This is what I am sitting here enjoying right now:



That is a white chocolate mocha and Enstroms Almond Toffee!!

HEAVENLY!!

I LOVE my hubby!

Now, I hope Santa brings me a gym membership for my stocking this year! ;)

Push Ups

No, I am not doing them! Although, I probably should.... :(

Bryce has started doing push-ups. He counts while he does them, but he counts fast and does the push-ups not as fast. He typically does "100 pushups" that are more like 10 to 15 pushups.

Then he walks around showing his muscles and telling everyone "I have muscle now!!"

Being a mom with five kids leaves little time to do little things like, oh, shower! If I don't get up by 5:30 on weekdays I can usually forget it. Between trying to get the older ones ready for school and then I can't leave the younger two alone for more than a few seconds (and even those few seconds have to be snuck away while noone is looking). So, I must quickly jump in and out of the shower before Paul leaves for work.

Jumping in and out quickly leaves little time for doing extra curricular things like shaving. All of you Mom's (especially if you have more than one) know what I am talking about. If you don't have kids...never say "I'll never...."

Last night as I reclined leisurely by the fire in my pjs, Bryce came over and put his hand on my legs. "Momma what is that fuzzy stuff on your legs?"

I thought about telling him that it was cold outside and I was growing my winter coat, but he ran off to something else as quickly as he touched my leg and asked about the fuzz. Gotta love a six year olds attention!

Today, my legs are silky smooth!

Hey, move me to the beach and I will keep my legs beach ready!! :)

A Coffee Drinker is Born

Last night I made coffee for me and hot chocolate with whipped cream for everyone else. I have made the older three hot chocolate before and they were not big on it. They complained about it being too hot and didn't really drink it.

I wasn't sure if I should make it for AJ. I started to figure it would be too hot and he would not drink it. Then I remembered he LOVES to take sips out of my coffee, even when it is "extra hot".

So I made him some too. The four boys sat at the table sipping there hot chocolate (although the older three sipped it with spoons). It was so nice listening to them laugh and giggle and talk NICELY to each other.

Andrew kept calling the hot chocolate coffee. The poor guy has been with his Mommy too long I guess.

This morning I woke up to pitter-pattering of feet headed to my room. But the pitter patters suddenly started fading and never made it to my bed. Then there was clanking from the living room/kitchen area. I figured I should go investigate.

I walked in to see Andrew leaving the bathroom with a step stool, headed for the kitchen. The pantry door was open.

"What ya doin, AJ?"

"I make you coffee. I make me coffee."

The hot chocolate was out and mugs were out. He was just trying to get to the water.

That's my boy!!

Progress!

Isaac just got his progress report for this semester. Momma is HAPPY!! He has 2 A's, 2 C's and 2 D's. SUCH an improvement on mid semster last semester and his report card. NO F'S!!!!! He is working SO hard!

He has been on his medicine since Tuesday. I have not heard from his teachers about what they see, but I know homework has been SO much easier. His Math, which we usually spend a LOT of time on every night, he is COMING HOME understanding!

I am so excited FOR him! And he is coming home happy about school, which was beginning to diminish. I can't wait to see his report card after being on the medicine!

My Cabbage Patch

Daddy calls Mady my Little Cabbage Patch. HE says it because I like to dress her up and do girlie things with her. Other people make it take on another meaning.

Ever since I had Mady we have always had people doing double take and making comments about how she looks like a doll, they thought she was not real, etc.

The comments have slowed down some now, because she is moving around a lot more, sitting in the carts or stroller, etc. But, the last few days while we were out running errands we started getting the comments again. It is funny to me because in my head I am wondering what mom would push a double stroller so a doll could have a seat or puts their older child in the back of the cart and puts a cart cover on the seat so she can put a doll in it.

Today at Target we got the comments a couple of times. She was sitting up in the cart, but sitting still, just looking around. Two ladies got in line behind us and were talking about how cute she was and how they thought she was a doll. I said we got that a lot. One of the women said "No, seriously. She looks JUST. LIKE. A. DOLL. She looks like what they copy dolls after. Well the cute ones anyway. She has a perfect head and gorgeous skin. She needs to model."

I smiled and said thank you, but inside I was LAUGHING so hard!! If she only knew! Mady has started "talking" a lot lately. She likes you to copy her. It is more of a loud growl, but talking none the less. She is becoming less and less of a "doll".

She IS a beautiful little girl, but I AM very biased too!!

Tragedies

Sometimes you hear or see things that really make you think about your own life. This has happened twice in the past week. First, this past weekend my mom was outside her house when she heard an accident happen in front of her neighbors house. She ran down to help, but there was nothing she could do. The car hit a concrete culvert and flipped. He was not wearing his seatbelt and the vehicle landed on top of him (did I mention he was driving a Jeep....just like my hubby?). He was the son of a very well known man in their area and had a six month old baby.

Then, yesterday I was reading through some blogs that I read regularly. One blog wrote about a blog she had read. This blog is about a 29 year old SAHM with four children ranging from 3 to 8 years old. In October her husband of 10 years suddenly got sick. He ended up in the hospital on oxygen. They had to intubate him. They gradually got him off of the oxygenand he seemed to be getting better. He had a lung infection which was apparently brought on by H1N1.

She wrote about juggling trying to visit her very sick husband and taking care of her kids. She wrote everyday about what she was going through and how her husband was.

Her husband ended up dying.

My heart breaks for her. She has continued blogging since he died in October. I spent quite a bit of time reading her blog last night. It has really made me think. This woman is about my age. She is a SAHM like me. I have been married for 11 years. She has four kids around the age of mine. It was VERY easy to feel her pain and grieve. Her and her husband were going about their normal life and all of a sudden it was turned upside down.

I have a WONDERFUL husband. He works hard to provide for our family. Before we had kids we had decided that when we had kids I would stay home with them and raise them. We, together, worked hard and sacrificed a lot to do this and I would not have traded it for the world. This IS what I have always wanted to be....a MOM!

But, what would happen if anything ever happened to my precious husband? How would I cope with losing the love of my life and trying to get five kids through that loss while also doing our day to day "chores". This woman is struggling with her own anger, grief, guilt and trying to trudge through her emotions of losing her husband. Would I be able to get out of bed?

Through all of this, she also has to figure out how to provide for her children. She has been a SAHM and her source of income just disappeared. He had life insurance, as does my hubby, but is that enough?

She wrote a letter to her husband on the one month date of his death. It was so heart-breaking to read. Would I be able to make it a month without my best friend? We have been together for 14 years. That is almost half of my life! How would I manage if just-like-that he was gone? She sleeps hugging her husbands pillow and wearing his tshirt or having it under her pillow. Would that be enough?

I am praying for both families for their loss. I also pray that I never have to experience what they are experiencing. I want to believe I would find the strength, just like she is, to carry on and try to make life "normal" (whatever that is after such a tragedy) for my children, but could I?

When you hear things like this, it really makes you appreciate what you have. Not WHAT you have, but WHO you have and the time you have with them. Because in a split second they could be gone forever!

Happy Birthday to You

Andrew has been walking around singing Happy Birthday to You for the last two days. So cute!

Happy Birthday Caleb

Today Caleb turned ELEVEN!!! I can't believe he is getting so old! He spent his morning before school rubbing in my face that his foot is about the size of mine and he is up to my shoulders.

Last night at dinner Caleb pointed out that he only had five years until he would be driving. I almost choked on my dinner. Then Dad had to help by adding that technically, with a learners permit, it was only four years. Lord help me please!

He asked me not to tell his teacher it was his birthday because he did not want his class to sing to him. He said they can't sing in tune and sound horrible. Nice, huh? But wait, he gets nicer....I emailed the teacher to see if I could bring cupcakes to his class. She said yes and said that Caleb whispered to her that it was his birthday but asked that she did not announce it because he did not want the class to sing to him (he left out the out of tune part). When I took the cupcakes and the class DID sing to him, he walked out of the classroom in the middle of the song.

Can we say RUDE?????

Happy Birthday Caleb!!!

Dr Appt for Isaac

Isaac had a consultation with his dr this morning to discuss the possibility of him having ADHD. He is not at all hyper, but we were looking at the not-being-able-to-pay-attention side of it.

Dad and I had to take a test first. We had to answer a questionnaire that asked questions and you had to answer something like "not at all, partly true, sometimes true, always true".

I skipped about four questions. They were questions like "Is your child perfect?" Is your child an angel?" etc.

The dr was going through the results and when he saw the skipped questions he asked about them. Dad said the questions seemed to be testing us. He said that is exactly what it was doing. He has to see if our concern is valid or if we have unattainable expectations for our kids. I told the dr him no one was perfect, that he could be an angel when he wanted, but typically he gets in trouble when he is with his brothers or other kids. Basically he is a normal kid that does normal kid things, including getting in trouble. I also told him that I expect different things from each of my kids because they are all different and capable of different things.

Turns out we passed OUR test. Isaac LOVED that WE had to take a test and he didn't! On the questions where they were asking about his activeness he scored where he should. On the questions about his attentiveness he scored as high (which you want a low score on) as he possibly could.

The dr did a great job of explaining everything where not only we could understand it, but Isaac could too. This includes the medicine he is going to be taking, why he is taking it, what the side effects could be, etc. Then he asked Isaac if he had any questions and told Isaac he was doing a great job in school. He pointed out that his conduct is perfect and is grades are okay, but that he is struggling and we are going to try and help that. He also said he did not have to tell ANYONE about his medicine if he didn't want to, that it was noone elses business.

The last thing the dr said to Isaac was "Okay Isaac. Why are you going to take this medicine?" Isaac replied "So I can pay attention and get better grades!" YAY!!!!!

So, about the meds: He is on the lowest dose of an weaker medicine. The dr thinks this is all he will need and if this isnt enough, we will go up from 5 mg to 10. The medicine only works when it is in his system. He will take one dose a day, right before he goes to school. It will be wearing off by the time he gets home. He does not have to take it on weekends or holidays if we don't want him to. Just when he needs to concentrate for a long period of time.

I hope and pray this will do the job and Isaac can get back on track with school. The dr said that often he sees kids when they are four or five (the hyperactive kids) or after they have failed a grade and are giving up (have the "what's the point in trying" feeling). He said we did good to figure this out as soon as he started struggling and before he had given up on his abilities in school.

His teachers are going to give me their feedback on how the meds are helping. We are supposed to see an IMMEDIATE difference if he is at the right dosage. Since he will be at school when the meds are effective, I have to depend on his teachers to pay attention and give me feedback (including signs of side effects). Luckily, he has great teachers that WANT to help him. I am glad this came to light this year with these teachers.

Have I Mentioned Lately.....

How much I LOVE being a Mom?

I never knew I could miss something I never had. Until I heard Mady this evening. I was tickling her and she was laughing. I LOVE the sound of the kids giggling!!

Anyway, I tickled her one time and she let out the loudest, girliest, squealiest scream. Daddy and I both looked at each other and burst out laughing. Daddy said "wow, she sounded like a girl!" And, she DID! I loved it. She did it a couple more times and I wished she would do it forever.

I am sure in time I will be rethinking how much I love the sound of that girlie scream, but for now I am going to bask in the sound of some GIRLINESS in this house full of guys!

God's Artwork

Last nights sunset:

545 Pictures Later....

That is how many pictures I took today to get ONE good Christmas picture. I am NOT going to do "The Making of a Christmas Card" post this year, for obvious reasons. Once we got kids sitting I just clicked and clicked and clicked and hoped for something good. I would really LOVE to put all the pictures in a movie format because as I was flipping through them you can really see how hard ANDREW makes it! Yes, HE was the problem (big surprise, huh?). Where he wasn't the problem, the lighting was.

Here is a sneak peek. This is not the one we will be sending out....you will have to wait until I post the Christmas card (which will be after I mail out Christmas cards). We took pictures at two parks and many different locations within those two parks. There were only a handful of "good" pics where EVERYONE somewhat cooperated.

We REALLY DO Have a Cheerleader Now!! :)

Often when people comment on all of the boys we have we hear lots of comments about having a basketball team, but the comment always ended with something about having no cheerleader. Well, we have a cheerleader and she got her first cheerleading uniform. Too cute!! We are thinking about taking the kids to the LSU/Arkansas game at the end of the month so we are getting everyone LSU gear.

Where's Mady?

Thought I would share Mads favorite game. She likes to start the game herself and I still laugh everytime she does. I don't think ANY of the boys were playing peek a boo by themselves at her age now (and she started doing it at five months old).

Wanna play peek-a-boo?

LSU Game

Daddy got two tickets to the LSU game today. He has a friend at work that has season tickets and gave him two tickets. The boys all wanted to go (of course) and THEY decided that they should pull sticks to see who goes. Dad and I decided that took the pressure off of us and since it was their idea, maybe those that were not going would not be as upset.

It worked, more or less. Obviously, by the above picture, Isaac drew the short stick, was what was decided to be the winning stick.

They are beyond the nose bleed section. Daddy said they were in the talking-to-God section. They got there a couple of hours before the game started (which is when this picture was taken). He said they were having conversations with God while it was quiet. We will see if those conversations help the Tigers win the game!

As of now, the score is 17-13, LSU....I will update when the game ends and add any pics Dad might take at the game.

Christmas Shopping

MY CHRISTMAS SHOPPING IS DONE!!!!! YAY! Santa still has to get a few gifts and stocking stuffers....but Santa is AWESOME and that is his job, MY job is done!

We went yesterday while the kids were at school. Daddy was home to help. Two buggies, a stroller and a baby in my arms was a bit crazy, but it is done....before Thanksgiving. More importantly, before the major crowds!

Toys R Us was having a pretty good sale and there were a lot of people already taking advantage of that at 9:30 Friday morning.

Andrew likes to "help" with things when I am busy trying to get stuff done. If I don't give him something to do he will just get in trouble, so I usually play along. This morning while I was trying to clean he kept getting into stuff, so I told him to go make sure all the bedroom doors were closed. No, they don't NEED to be closed, just gives him something to do! :)

I hear SLAM, SLAM, SLAM, SLAM and then the pitter patter of his big feet running toward me. "Otay, doors cosed."

Go make sure Beaux is okay (he is in his kennel at the moment). He comes back after a few minutes "Mommy, Beaux otay!"

We did this for a bit and I was running out of pointless projects (really they aren't pointless...they are to keep him busy and out of trouble).

"Andrew" I say as I kneel down to him. "Yes mommy?"

"Andrew, this is REALLY important. I need you to do this for me."

"Otay Mommy, what?" he says as he sweetly hugs me'. :)

"I need you to listen. This is really important." he turns his ear toward me.

"I need you to go and check on Andrew and make sure he is okay."

"OTAY.....I GO CHECK ANDEW!"

I THOUGHT at this point he would realize what I had said and stop. He realized what I said, but he didn't stop. He ran to his room! He came back and "ANDEW IS OTAY!" with such enthusiasm. I had to stop what I was doing and give him a big hug.

Now, he is lying next to Madeleine reading to her.

Sleepy Madeleine

Mads was SO tired Sunday evening. She started off eating fine....but this is how we ended it:

YUMMY!!

Paul made grilled pineapples with a sour cream/brown sugar/ginger sauce. Andrew really likes pineapples, but he LOVED the sauce!

The Load That Defeated Me

Black and red crayon in the dryer with a load of lights. Do I need to say anything else?
Usually I manage to get it all out. There was no way with this load. We lost four or five pairs of pants.

Guess what the boys are getting for Christmas!?!

Turkey Tom

Every year we have to decorate a turkey for Thanksgiving. Bryce had to decorate Turkey Tom as well as he could so he was disguised and did not get shot for Thanksgiving dinner. He decided to make him a fireman (I know BIG SURPRISE!!!)
This is what he and Daddy came up with. I took it to the school because we did not want it on the bus (and it was raining). As soon as I walked in the school people started commenting on how great it looked!

Fixed Finger, Mended Heart

Andrew took the tape off his finger last night when he went to bed (which I figured he would do). He did keep it elevated, because that is the hand he sucks his thumb with.

This morning he got up and came out like every morning. After a minute he realized he still had tape on his chest. Then he grabbed his finger, looked at it and smiled at me. "Finger fixed!" Then he gave me a big hug and said "I need kiss you!"

MOMMY IS ALL BETTER NOW TOO!!!

He is bending it and it is not swollen anymore. He says it no longer hurts.

Magic Voovoo

Andrew watched a cartoon yesterday and they were using a magic wand. This morning HE has a magic voovoo (don't know where he got the name). He is running around doing magic on everything.

I tried to use the magic voovoo to make him poopoo in the potty. Apparently, it ONLY works when HE uses it. So, I got to clean out underwear. ARGHHHH!

Growing Up

Mads has been crawling for the past couple of weeks, but up until the last couple of days she was doing the army crawl. She was pulling herself around with her arms. The last couple of days she has been using her feet to push herself and her arms to pull. Today she has been up on her knees.

It does not matter HOW she gets around....she is getting around and getting into everything!

She has also been working on a tooth for quite a while now. For the last month+ she has had a tooth that would come right up to the surface and then disappear. Last week we had a REALLY bad day....she screamed all morning and nothing would help. She was drooling everywhere, chewing on everything and just miserable. Nothing helped. She would not let me put her down....even for nap, without throwing a fit. I was sure her tooth was going to break through. It didn't and the tooth was gone the next morning.

Yesterday the tooth was back and the gum seemed to be split. She was cranky, but not as bad as last week. Today, the gum looks split even more and I can feel the tooth, but it is still not through. Hopefully, it will be through tomorrow!!

Hurt Finger and Broken Heart

Andrew had his finger slammed in a door this evening. Ironically enough, Isaac did it. He felt SO bad after though, because he knows all to well how it feels!

Andrew SCREAMED and SCREAMED and SCREAMED! I put frozen peas on it, made his even more mad. I tried kisses. Didn't help. I tried everything. Nothing would make him stop squeezing his hands and crying.

He eventually gave up on me I guess. He went to his room, still crying. Daddy went in a few minutes later to check on him. He was sitting on the floor in the corner saying "Mommy no help me!" over and over. Daddy told me so I called Andrew. He said "you no help" and would not come. I went to his room and kneeled down at him. He said "you no help" and ran out of his room.

BROKE MY HEART!!!

We gave him some tylenol and I got him a popsicle so I could use the stick on his finger (he would not bend his finger and it was swelling). I handed it to Daddy to open because I had my hands full. I asked him if Mommy made it better. He said "no, Daddy gave me popsicle."

After he ate his popsicle, I took him, his blankie and monkey to my room. I wrapped his finger up, put some first aid tape on his chest as a sticker and laid down with him. The tylenol kicked in and he calmed down. After that he said "Mommy fix my finger."

Let's hope it stays fixed through the night!

TOO SWEET!!!!

Baby Blues

Her denim jumper really shows off the fact that this babies blues are a denim blue. I love how four of the five kids have blue eyes, but they are all different shades of blue. Each unique, just like them!


I love holding her and just staring into her eyes and talking. SO RELAXING! I don't know who is going to miss her bedtime routine more, me or her, when we have to eventually end it! Everynight I rock her to sleep. We sit in her room with her dim light on and I sing with her lullabies cd (she might prefer skipping that part...but I like the songs) until she falls asleep. The perfect way to unwind from the craziness of life!

I just can't believe she is the last one :(

Some of the Many Faces of Madeleine