Quasquicentennial Pictures

Gunfighters

Marshals/Gunfighters

Losers

Winner

Autographs

Autographs

Kaomi's pony ride.

All 5 kids!

Kaomi Cooling off!

Wonderful Weekend - Celebrating Krum's Quasquicentennial

We had a fun day.  We started off by heading out to downtown Krum to celebrate our City's quasquicentennial (125th) anniversary.  There were lots of vendors with all kinds of cool things they were selling and there were all kinds of activities for kids as well as a car show and a Gunfight, right in the middle of the street.  I took lots of pictures and I will let them give you an idea of what we did.

Kent with the Marshals

 

 

 

The Gunfighter who came to town.

Katy's Pony ride

Water slides are fun!

Kaomi with Mommy's favorite of the cars at the car show.

Our whole family!

Kent on a cow!

We stayed for a little over 2 hours and then left to go home and cool down for a while.  We returned in the evening for the Quasquicentennial Parade.  It was 108 degrees and the turnout was kind of small, but it was  fun with lots of fire trucks from throughout our local area. 

Sundaes for Supper

This is our hottest week of the year so far.  Yesterday it hit 110 degrees, today it went to 109 and the rest of the week is looking similar.  I decided it was time to have Ice Cream Sundaes for supper.  The kids thoroughly enjoyed their sundaes.  They were loaded with graham crackers, vanilla ice cream, strawberry and banana slices, chocolate syrup, peanut butter topping, marshmallows, fresh whipped cream and sprinkles.  Now its 8:30 pm and still 104 degrees.

Thanks!

I want to give a big thank you to the top referring sites for the month of July.  Visit their sites to share in thanking them.

MomLife Today
Mama's Laundry Talk
Simple Homeschool
Raising Arrows
Raising Homemakers
Life Above and Beyond

July Decluttering

Even though we just moved and I tried to declutter as we packed to move there are still many things I've found to declutter this month.  I was inspired by A Slob Comes Clean to post what I've done. 

In July I decluttered:
-books that had seen better days
-jars that I couldn't find the lids for
-papers that are always accumulating
-children's clothes that we no longer wanted or needed


I also tried to use up some various items that were sitting around my home that were open or out.  I was able to use them up and therefore get them out of my home or if they are still here they are currently being used.

Today

Jeff Serenading Clark and I

A fun way to practice writing letters.

Smiling at Mommy

Pictures of Clark

The Cuckoo Clock

This cuckoo clock is in our dining room.

It was given to Jeff and I as a wedding present from Auntie Diane and Uncle Phil.  They remembered the few times that I visited in their home as a child sitting or standing in their dining room watching their cuckoo clock.  I loved to listen to it tick-tock, cuckoo, and watching Uncle Phil wind it every day.

Listening to our cuckoo clock tick-tock and cuckoo bring back memories of being at Uncle Phil and Auntie Diane's home.

First of all they lived in an old farmhouse from the 1800's? in Connecticut.  My memories may not be 100% accurate as it has been a long time since I was last there and I will probably never get to return there either.  It had fireplaces in the bedrooms upstairs and downstairs in the living room and master bedroom.  The staircase was skinny and kind of "spiraled" or at leas it turned some.

I Remember:

- playing outside and being told not to get to close to the billy goat or he would butt me.  I don't think I got too close.

- playing on the large porch.  I played with a toy stove.  I also remember looking out the screened in porch at the large yard.  My older brother slept on the porch that summer.

- going with their son Tim and my older brother to look for a lost cow.  We found it in the woods.  I remember my legs ached and I was tired from walking a long time looking for the cow.  We got home just as it got dark.  I vaguely recall being in the barn, but I don't remember much about it.

-playing in a little blue swimming pool in the yard.

-playing with a real china doll that I had to be very careful with because it was very old.

-sitting in the dining room eating a meal and watching the cuckoo clock.

-helping Auntie Diane make popsicles in the kitchen.

-visiting in the winter and having a "Colonial Days" theme.  My Mom took my younger sister and brother and I to visit and we got to pretend we lived in the Colonial Days.  We did our best to dress the part, cook over the fire in the fireplace, and practice spinning yarn with the spinning wheel.  I'm sure we did something else that day too, but I don't remember it now.  I also watched the cuckoo clock.

Do you have a cuckoo clock memory?

Return to School Mode

We started school yesterday!

Our first day went surprisingly well.  We even went to the library, where I found out that the librarian renewed my overdue books for me last week so my fine wasn't as big as I was expecting it to be. 

The kids enjoyed getting to see their new books and start something new.

Kaomi would have loved to have a full day of school.  She had so much fun in her 5-10 minute lessons throughout the morning.

Kent was excited about History and wasn't to thrilled when it came time to do math.  He found that math wasn't so hard after all.  Hopefully, this year will be better for him than the end of last year when it comes to math.

Katy enjoyed her new things and did better at her copywork than I was expecting.  I made sure she knew that I thought she did a great job.

Felicity wasn't sure about what was going on, but she was a trooper and everyone had a turn helping with her during the day.  She also had a morning quiet time and a great afternoon nap.

Clark didn't interfere much, he slept most of the time and ate the rest of the time.

This week we are just having schoolwork 3 days and next week we plan to add our 4th day. 

Playing

On Wednesday Jeff took Kent and Katy to VBS.  I stayed home in the morning to play with Kaomi and Felicity.  I played with Felicity for a little while and them we all sang a few songs.  After that Felicity went down for her nap and Kaomi wanted me to string beads with her.  I made a bracelet for both Kaomi and Katy.   Kaomi made a necklace.  Than Kaomi wanted me to read to her.

On Thursday, I worked on getting stuff ready for school.  Kaomi sat at the table by me to color.  She was so excited that she gets to start school soon.

On Friday after we dropped the two oldest off at VBS Kaomi and I went to Micheal's to look around.  Then we went to the mall and Felicity and Kaomi played on the playground.  They had so much fun and it was air conditioned :)

What have we been up to?

Last week we went to the Farmers' Market.  I let each of the kids pick something out.  Kent picked round zucchini and scallop squash.  Katy picked corn for supper.  Kaomi picked yellow squash.  I picked a cantaloupe and peaches.  We came home and started in on the peaches.

The kids had fun peeling peaches for me to make jam.  My jam ended up a failed experiment so I turned it into peach butter.  We are still trying to decide if it is good.

On Sunday afternoon Jeff unpacked several more boxes that were in the dining area of the kitchen.  They were my China that we haven't unpacked since we moved into our previous house before Kent was born.  They now have a place in my kitchen cupboards.

Cake Plate

My china pattern is Royal Schwarzburg RSC 23.  I think it is very pretty.  Now we can have a formal dinner.

This week is Vacation Bible School at our church.  Kent and Katy get to go this year and they are both on the same team.  Today while they were at VBS Kaomi, Felicity, Clark, and I went to the Farmers' Market.  Kaomi wanted another cantaloupe.  I bought some tomatoes to serve with our tacos for dinner and some okra to fry for tomorrow.  I also bought some more peaches.  Jeff wanted a cobbler.  This afternoon after quiet time Kent and Katy helped cut the peaches for the cobbler and Kaomi helped make the batter.  Jeff was happy to have his cobbler.

Homemade Apple Butter

My house smelled wonderful all day.  I made apple butter in my crockpot.

The recipe I used is adapted from this recipe.  My recipe is below.

Homemade Apple Butter

2 quarts of homemade, blended applesauce
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. cloves
1/16 tsp. ginger
1/2 cup honey

Mix all in a small crockpot and heat on low.  Place crockpot lid on wooden skewers to allow steam to escape.  Cook for 7-12 hours, scraping sides of crockpot every hour or so to keep from burning.  When as thick as you want it put into jars.  Cool and freeze or refrigerate with labels. 

I had the above jars from jam and decided to use them and will freeze my apple butter.  I left about an inch of head space in my jars to allow for expansion in the freezer.  Mine cooked for about 9 hours.  You could also can them in a water bath using canning jars. 

The apple butter will keep for 2-3 weeks in the refrigerator or 6-12 months in the freezer. 

Wonderful Weekend - Celebrating our Independence

This weekend we had a lot of fun.

On Saturday, Jeff worked at home and took care Kent, Kaomi and Felicity.  I took Katy and Clark out for the day.  We went to the mall, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Target.

On Sunday we enjoyed our Church service and Sunday School classes.  In the afternoon/evening we met with some of the people in our Small Group for a picnic supper, swimming, and ice cream.  It was great to catch up with those we haven't seen in a few weeks.

On Monday we went to the 4th of July Parade in Denton.  Kaomi wanted to know if we would see Santa in the parade.  We told her we didn't think so.  She was excited to see Santa and one of his elves riding a motorcycle :)  After the parade we returned home and Jeff mowed the grass and worked on the baby gate he is building for our stairs.   I cut and peeled apples to make applesauce in the crockpot.  I am planning on making some apple butter in the crockpot using the applesauce I made.  I also unpacked another box.  After supper, we went to see the fireworks in Denton.  We went early and met up with a few people from our small group and then some neighbors of ours who have kids that we know came to the same area.  The kids had fun running around and playing for 2 hours and even made some new friends.  Then after it was dark and we were waiting for the fireworks to start Kent lost his first tooth.  He went to open his water bottle, with his teeth and his tooth fell out.  The fireworks were great and Felicity laughed and giggled at the grand finale.

Happy 4th of July!

Photo Credit

2 Weeks Old!

Wow!  Time sure flies by.  Today Clark is 2 weeks old.  He now weighs 9# 5 oz. and is 22 1/4 inches long.  The older kids had a fun day with their Aunt and cousins.  They went out to Chick-fil-a for lunch and play and then they went to Grammy's house to see the puppies.  Felicity and I had a "date", too.  We went to Target and had pizza for lunch.

Juggling and Water Balloons

We went to the library yesterday.  They were having a special summer program.  We had a lot of fun watching David Slick juggle and do a little bit of magic.  He did a great job interacting with the kids in the audience.  He holds a Guinness world record in juggling three objects for twelve hours.

So I went home and filled up water balloons.  Kaomi had fun helping hand me the next balloon for me to fill up.  I thought maybe I would have the kids practice trying to juggle them.  It was too hot, so I decided to wait until later to get the water balloons and kids outside.  We went outside after dinner.  I decided just to have the kids throw them at each other.  First we all threw our balloons at Kent, then Kaomi.  Next we threw them at Felicity, she thought it was funny, until she dropped her water balloon and it broke.  I gave her another.  Then we all threw our water balloons at Katy.  Daddy came outside with cold water in his squirt gun and started squirting us, so we all threw our next water balloons at Daddy.  Then they all threw water balloons at me.  Daddy got the last water balloon and played eenie, meanie, miny, moe to see who he would break it on.  It ended up being Kent, so I threw the water that was left in my dishpan, where I had stored the water balloons, on Katy and Kaomi.  Then Daddy got out the hose and everyone got out some water pistols and ran around having fun.  Even Felicity had fun with Daddy squirting her.  Clark stayed inside missing out on all our fun. 

Sleep - One of a New Mom's Greatest Challenges

Why do newborns have their days and nights mixed up?  I don't know that there is any scientific reason, but maybe God is giving me a chance to bond with my baby or giving me a lesson about selflessness, etc.  If it's a chance to bond, I fail miserably at this in the middle of the night when I'm so tired I can barely think.

When you have a new baby the doctor or midwife will tell you to sleep when your baby sleeps.  This advice is fine for a first time mom, or even a mom with older children that you can depend on to let you take the nap you need.  As a mom to several young children this advice doesn't work as well, unless of course you have full time help and you can sleep even with the hustle and bustle of everyday life going on around you.

So how do I try get my new baby to sleep during the night, so I can function better during the day and not be extremely exhausted or grumpy with my kids?  Here are my seven ideas on helping my newborns sleep better at night and how they are working for us right now.

1.  For the first week of any of our new baby's lives Jeff has stayed home and helped with the other kids, housework, and cooking.  This has allowed me to rest, take extra naps as I could, and in general save energy that I would need when he returns to work.  At night we have learned that it works best for both of us to get a little sleep if we tag team to stay up with the baby as needed.  That means that I might nurse the new baby and then go to sleep while Jeff stays up with the baby until it is time to nurse again and then he wakes me up and I will stay up with the baby, etc.  Of course if the baby goes to sleep we go to sleep, too.

Last week didn't work as well for tag teaming this time around.  Clark wanted to be awake from 12-3 am or 1-4 am.  Little naps that result in him waking up when you put him down don't count.  One night Jeff was up with Clark and Clark had finally fallen to sleep, when the tornado sirens went off at 2:30 am.  Then it started to get really windy, so we decided that maybe we should get the kids up and go to the closet under our stairs.  There was no tornado, but the possibility of 80 mph gusts.  We'd rather get the kids up, than regret that we hadn't.  So of course Clark got woken up and we didn't get much sleep.  Even though we had all the older children back in bed before 3 am Jeff and I were both pretty much awake until 4 am.  It makes for some tiring days when both Daddy and Mommy didn't sleep much.

2.  The midwife tells us to feed our new babies every 2-3 hours, no matter what.  I try my best for the first few days, but then I switch over to survival mode.  How can I get them to sleep at night, so I can sleep and feel rested to take care of all my children the next day?  I start letting them sleep as long as they will, or as long as I can let them sleep at night.

3.  Snuggling the baby.  Sometimes all it takes for a new baby to sleep is snuggling.  The drawback is you can only snuggle so long before you need to switch positions and often the baby will wake up.  Yes, I can sleep sitting up, but it isn't very comfortable or restful.

4.  Co-sleeping with the baby.  I know that this is a controversial topic.  It is also not my favorite to do, but if it is the only way to keep the baby asleep then it works for me.  Kaomi was the first baby we co-slept with.  She ate so often at night that it wasn't practical for me to get up to feed her, go back to sleep and 30-45 minutes after I fell back asleep she would be up again.  Sometimes just having a hand on the baby while we sleep helps the baby to sleep better.

5.  Using a buzzy chair.  Of course you can only use this when they are very little and it is safe for them to not fall over the edge.  As soon as they start to show signs of beginning to sit up by themselves even a little bit this is not safe any more.

6.  Using the baby's car seat carrier.  This one is my favorite.  So far we have used this method successfully with 3 of our children.  We didn't try it with Kent.  It worked for Katy, Felicity and now Clark.  Kaomi couldn't get comfortable in it and would just scream.  I don't buckle them in, so when they start to get wiggly and wiggle down or out of the car seat this is no longer safe.

I will nurse Clark and then wrap him snugly in a blanket and set him in the car seat.  I place a rolled up blanket next to him to help keep him from flopping over to the side.  He sleeps quite well like this.  I wonder if it makes him feel snug like he felt before he was born.  The last couple of nights he has slept for 3-5 hours at a time.  I've actually gotten him up to nurse him the last two nights and he didn't even really wake up.  He just ate and then went right back into the car seat for 3 more hours.  This is the most restful for me, because I don't put him in his car seat for the night until I am ready to lay down and go to sleep myself.

7.  During the day at least once I try to put them in their actual bed to let them practice sleeping there and get used to it.  It is much easier to deal with a baby who is having trouble sleeping during the day than it is in the middle of the night.  When the above ideas no longer work for us they are usually ready to transition to their bed and continue sleeping well.

If you have any suggestions for helping a baby to sleep better at night, please leave a comment and let us know what you do.

Psalm 128

"Blessed are all who fear the Lord,

who walk in His ways.

You will eat the fruit of your labor,

blessings and prosperity will be yours.

Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house;

your sons will be like olive shoots around your table.

Thus is the man blessed who fears the Lord.

May the Lord bless you from Zion all the days of your life;

may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem,

and may you live to see your children's children.

Peace be upon Israel."

Psalm 128                                         

Happy Father's Day, Jeff.

You are the most wonderful Father I could wish for our children to have.

I love you!

Baby Pictures

With Grammy

Proud Daddy

Clark Walter

Yesterday I woke up around 3:30 am having contractions that were definitely real, but had no pattern to them yet.  I went back to sleep and let Jeff know in the morning that he didn't need to go to work as the baby was coming.  All morning the contractions continued, but again didn't really get a regularity.  Jeff kept asking me, "Is it time to go"?  Before lunch we took walk around the block to see if we could help get them going in the seemingly right direction.  After we returned home, I made lunch for everybody.  Then the contractions started to be more regular and more intense.  I sent all the kids for quiet time around two, and laid down for a little while myself.  Around 3 pm the contractions were getting to be 7-10 minutes apart so we knew that we would probably need to go soon.  I called a local friend and asked if they were available to watch the kids in a little while and we made arrangements to drop the kids off at their house on our way to the birth center.  We had been kind of planning on having a home birth, but knew that our midwife wasn't available to do a home birth yesterday and that we would need to go to the birth center.  I called the birth center and let them know that we were leaving shortly and had to drop the kids off first.  We dropped the kids off and continued to the birth center.  Jeff was in a hurry to get me there and I kept telling him, "its okay, slow down, we'll be there in time".  We arrived at the birth center about 3:55 pm and they took us right back.  I was already dilated to 8 cm.  I had no idea, but I knew when the midwife on duty said that, that it wouldn't be much longer.  We went to the birthing room and started to fill the tub with water for a water birth.  After two more contractions I knew I was going to need to push soon.  The tub wasn't full enough to have a water birth yet and I just said okay, lets not have it in the water then.  Clark Walter was born at 4:09 pm.  We spent some time snuggling and after a while they weighed him and did the assessments they needed to do.  He weighed 8# 14 oz. and was 20 3/4 inches long.  We were back at home around 7 pm and Jeff picked the kids up a little later.

Our New Baby!

Our baby was born this afternoon at 4:09 CST.  I'll post more details tomorrow.

40 weeks

Today I am 40 weeks.  This baby is due sometime soon.  We thought it was going to be here by now, but God has other plans.  My husband is great.  He is flexible and was able to take the kids for a little while when I was at the midwife's office today.  He took them to Chick-Fil-A and got them all milkshakes and let them play in the play area until I was done with my appointment. 

Wonderful Weekend - Visiting with Friends

Yesterday some friends invited the kids and Jeff and I over to play.  The kids were excited about going over to go swimming and make ice cream and have fun with their friends.  I love the fact that these friends were all adults.  The parents are in our small group with us and their oldest girl and her husband were visiting and wanted to have our kids over to play.  Their younger daughter is out of college and still lives at home, but she loves children.  Our kids were the only young children there and they had so much fun with everyone.  It was a nice relaxing evening.  Jeff went in the pool with the kids and I sat on the sidelines and watched, wishing that I had brought my swimsuit anyway, as maybe swimming would have helped me go into labor.  When everyone was done swimming our kids joined some of the adults in making homemade peppermint ice cream.  They helped smash the peppermints with hammers, measure ingredients, mix, and taste rock salt.  We then had hot dogs for dinner and yummy peppermint ice cream for dessert while we watched the first half of the Mavericks game.  After we returned home and the kids were all in bed, Jeff and I watched the Mavericks win the Finals.

Walking is Fun

Felicity has finally decided that it is fun to walk.  She is toddling around now to wherever she wants to go.  She gets her favorite toy or book and stands up to bring it to someone to play with her or read to her.  Then when she falls down she says "oohh!"

Working Weekend - Around the House

This weekend we were busy working around the house.  Jeff had a friend come over and help him move the rest of the stuff out of storage and to our new house.  Now I finally have a bookshelf in the school room!  So on Saturday, Jeff brought in and distributed the boxes of books that were stacked in the garage, then while he was rearranging and making the garage space usable for upcoming projects I unpacked several boxes of books.  The kids helped both of us in various ways.  After lunch, we went to Lowe's to get curtain rods for the kitchen and brackets for the living room curtain rods, wood for a projects and other odds and ends.  Then Jeff, Kaomi, and Katy brought home the stuff from Lowe's and Kent, Felicity and I went grocery shopping.  After we returned home and the groceries were put away, Jeff put up the curtain rods and curtains in the kitchen, then he grilled our steak and asparagus for dinner.

A New Ride

We sold our car last week.  I really hated to have to get rid of it, but we really needed something a little bigger.  I could have fit one more car seat into our Mazda CX-9, for a total of 5 car/booster seats.  The main problem was that their wasn't much space to put groceries in, much less to take a trip of any length.  Not that we are planning any trips right now, since our baby is due this month.  So now I have a "new to us" truck.  It is a GMC Yukon and it will fit 5 car/booster seats just fine, with one seat to spare.  It also has a nice large area behind that seats for me to put my groceries, stroller and anything else I might want to put back there.  It's a little different to drive.  Isn't any new vehicle?  I'm sure I will adjust quickly.  It's a little different having to climb into the middle seat to fasten Felicity's seat belt.  She thinks its fun for me to get in next to her.

The Story of Our New House, Part 3

This is the story of God's plan for our family and getting our new house read Part 1 and Part 2 if you wish to.

So we started moving into our new house on Monday night.  On Tuesday I ran over to the old house to do laundry and get a little bit of stuff that I could fit in my car.  Including food that didn't need to be kept cold and didn't need to be cooked in a stove.  We had bought our own new appliances and the ones that came with the house we had sold to the appliance company.  The only thing was that with the closing date change our appliance delivery date had to change too.  They couldn't bring us our new appliances and pick up the old ones until Friday.  It wasn't a big deal, it just meant I had to think about what we were going to eat and use the old house if I needed to cook something.

On Tuesday afternoon I was working on unpacking a little bit and Jeff's Mom came over to begin painting.  Jeff came home early from work and helped paint and got a couple more loads of stuff from the old house in his truck.  Jeff had made arrangements to stay home from work on Wednesday morning and his brother was planning on coming and helping move the fridge, freezer, washing machine and dryer, but his brother had hurt his back and wasn't going to be able to help that day after all.  So Jeff and his Mom worked on finishing up the painting and then he stayed home for the rest of the day to move whatever he could move by himself.  By Wednesday night or Thursday morning both Jeff and I were beginning to wonder how we were going to get everything moved by Saturday, which was when we needed to turn the keys over to the new owners and be out of the old house.

We knew that many of the people who had planned on helping us move originally weren't available to help on the Saturday that we would be trying to move.  Thursday morning while Jeff was at work he was getting ready to send an e-mail to the friends who helped us move on Monday night and see if they were free to help us again, but he stopped and decided to pray.  He said he decided that we've been trusting God this whole time, why should we stop now.  A little later he sent a text to the same friends to see if we could borrow their trailer or if he could help for a little while that evening.  God worked it out that we could borrow their trailer and they were available to help.  Then Jeff contacted another friend who lives close by to see if he could come around the same time and help move some heavier furniture.  The friends who had the trailer also contacted some other friends from our Bible Study Group and they showed up to help us move and clean, too.  We moved a lot of stuff on Thursday night.  Thanks God for providing for our needs again. 

On Friday Kaomi and Katy weren't feeling that well, so I didn't get over to the old house to work on bringing anything over during the day.  Friday night Jeff and his Dad were going to hook up the appliances and almost everyone who came on Thursday night came over again and helped hook up appliances, assemble furniture, and unpack several boxes.  Thanks again, God.  On Saturday several of Jeff's siblings and his Mom were able to come help finish packing, moving, and cleaning the best they could as we had the electricity shut off on Friday.  Thanks everyone for helping.  God is so good.  He knew exactly how much help we needed and when we would need it so we could be moved out on time.  Now we know why our closing was delayed.  It was so we could have a whole week to move and trust God even more.  Jeff finished loading up the last load just before 6:00 on Saturday, just in time to hand over the keys to our old house.

Lessons Learned:  Trust God completely, He know what is best.  Pack like you are going on vacation, then live in a hotel while you hire someone to pack your house.  As much packing as we tried to do ahead of time, their was still much to do, come moving day.

The Story of Our New House, Part 2

If you haven't read Part 1 you may wish to do so before continuing with Part 2.

We thought the easy part was over.  We sold our current house, we were renting it back from the new owners and we thought we had a closing date on our new house.

We were still trusting God, but it seemed like everything had fallen into place.  One week before we were supposed to close we were getting mortgage paperwork finalized and had our walk through of our new house.  Our builder said we needed to call and make an appointment time for our closing, so Jeff proceeded to call and try to get that set up right away.  We found out that we couldn't set the time until all the paperwork was turned in and processed, we turned in everything that we could, but had to wait on two documents that were coming through the mail to us.  We got them and sent them in.  Then they said we have everything, but we need one more piece of paperwork from the USDA and that usually takes 2-7 days to process.  That meant that maybe we would close when we planned and maybe not.

We contacted our realtor, he contacted the new owners of our home, and they were going to graciously let us rent our house for one more week if we needed to.  Our original closing date passed and so did the next day with out anymore word on when we would be able to close.  We knew there was a reason, why we didn't close when we were expecting to, but we didn't know why, we just chose to trust God.  The Saturday that we had many people lined up to help us move came and we had let everyone know that we appreciated their willingness to help, but they could have the day to do something else fun as we weren't going to need them that day.  That Saturday morning the guy Jeff had been working with through the mortgage company called and said, we got the paperwork in last night and you will be able to close on Monday.  We will let you know what time as soon as we can.  Thank you God!!  That was a relief just to be able to have a few more details.  They called us later and told us what time and we were able to arrange childcare, while we were closing.

On Monday, we went to closing.  It took about 45 minutes and we had the document that would let us pick up our keys for our new home.  We were praising God on the way home as we now could begin moving into our new home.

Jeff picked up the keys and we went back to our old home and decided to take a load of stuff over with us when we went to see our new home for the first time that day.  Then we had some friends call and ask if we had closed and they wanted to help us begin moving that night if we wanted them to help.  Of course we said "YES!".  So they came over and brought their trailer and helped begin moving things.  They brought our beds/mattresses over, so we spent our first night in our new house right away.  We were going to be painting the boys and girls rooms, so Jeff's Mom and Jeff worked on getting the rooms ready to paint right away that evening.

Part 3

The Story of Our New House, Part 1

We've been thinking of moving to a bigger house for a while.  We looked at building a couple of years ago and it didn't feel like the right time.  We started looking again toward the end of last summer, we thought we were ready to build, but the builder wasn't ready for us so we waited and prayed.  Then Jeff noticed that another builder in the area where we were wanting to build had some new floor plans, we took a look at them and both of us felt that the time was right to try again.  We put our home up for sale in late December and signed a contingency with the builder, saying if we didn't sell our house we would default our up front costs to them.  We felt like this was what God was wanting us to do, even though neither of us are keen on taking risks like that.  We had a peace from God about this and decided that we would be trusting him to do what was best for our family.

For the first 2 months that our house was on the market, we didn't have anyone look at it.  Jeff was praying that we would sell our home and I was praying that we would sell our home and be able to stay in it until we could move into our new home.  We still felt like this was what God was wanting us to do.  We both struggled with trusting him and trying to see if there was something we could do, but we both understood that it was going to have to be God who did what we needed.  He knew best anyway.

It was coming right down to the line and we hadn't had very many people look at our home, but we kept praying that God would send "the one" who was to buy our house.  We had about 6 weeks to closing on the new house and still no bites on our home.  Then we had someone scheduled to look at the house and they canceled.  Then they rescheduled and two days later we had an offer on our house.  It wasn't just any offer though.  They offered us less than we would be able to accept, but they also offered to let us rent it back from them until we could move into our new home.  It sounded perfect, it was just what I was praying for, but would they come up on their price?  Jeff and I sat down and figured out what the lowest price was that we could accept, then we counter offered.  They accepted our counter offer and we were set to close about 1 week before the closing on our new house.  Then we found out that if we closed on our home before May we would actually save a little money, so we asked if they would be interested in closing earlier.  They were and we had it set up to rent the house for the next two weeks.  We closed on our home less than 30 days after we received their acceptance to our counter offer.  How good God is and he knew exactly the timing of all of this.

Part 2

Our Anniversary 2011

Our 8th anniversary was Monday.  This year we got a new house for our anniversary.  Jeff took me out to dinner for a wonderful evening on Sunday, as we knew that we might be kind of busy on Monday.

So this is what we were doing Monday evening:

First load of stuff for new house!

Kaomi helping keep and eye on Felicity in new house!

Jeff and Kent taking first boxes into our new house.

I guess I didn't get any pictures of Katy that day, I think she was busy exploring upstairs.  This was the first time the kids have been in the house where they were allowed to look around on their own.  We hung new, fun shower curtains in all the bathrooms, had Sonic for dinner on the floor in the kitchen and Jeff and his Mom began getting Kent's and the girls rooms ready to paint.

Swap Sister Gift

This is the gift my swap sister sent me this month for the April/May swap.  Thank you Wendy for your thoughtful gift, it was fun to receive in the middle of packing and take a break for a little while.  She included some fun stickers for the kids, pencils, cherry candy, glue sticks (which we use a lot of), a photo album, word strips, sewing needles, and hot chocolate.

Picture Recap

Daddy occupied the kids on Mother's Day.

Felicity, my snuggle partner on Mother's Day.

Felicity eating a pancake last Saturday.

Moving into Our New House

We are finally moving into our new home.  We were able to close on it yesterday after a few days delay and we got to sleep in it last night, thanks to some friends who said can we help you move tonight?  Of course we said yes and they helped move beds and other stuff.  We won't have appliances until Friday, so if I need to cook something I will do it in our old home.  We have until Saturday to be completely out of the old home :( and into our new home :)

Steps

Felicity took her first 3 steps last night.  She picked up a book off the floor and reached out with it like she wanted to show it to Jeff and I, then she took 3 steps.  After that we kept trying to get her to walk, but she would only take 1 step before sitting down.  It won't be long now before we will be chasing her even more.  She will be 15 months on Friday this week and she is the latest to begin walking of all our children.

Momories

I thought in observance of Mother's Day I would write about a memory from each of the mom figures in my life.

My Mom:  She loves me and taught me much knowing what was best for me in spite of the fact that I didn't always agree with her.  I'm so thankful that she had the wisdom to do what was right.  Thanks, Mom.  I love you!

Jeff's Mom:  I love that she is a quiet inspiration to me to have a gentle and quiet spirit.  Something I struggle with, but I know through Christ I can come closer and having someone who I can see do what I should do helps.  Thanks, Mom.

My Grandma Pete:  I loved spending time with her, whether we were visiting her at home or at her cabin.  She tried to make it fun for all of us.  I have many great memories of things she has done in my life.  I loved telling her when the apple trees were blooming.  Thanks, Grandma.

My Grandma R.:  I loved to go visit Nana as a child.  She makes the best cookies and sloppy joes.  I also loved having her and Pop-pop visit at our home, snapping beans and listening to her talk or sharing Christmas Day with her.  Thanks, Grandma.

Nannie (Jeff's Grandma):  I love to listen to her stories of when her kids or grand kids were young.  Thanks for sharing, Nannie.

Donna:  My mentor from church.  Thanks for meeting with me and being my friend.  Having someone to talk to and spend some time with has been a treasure for me.  Thanks, Donna

Happy Mother's Day to each and everyone of you!

How should I clean?

I don't usually link to others blog, but I thought this was worthy of sharing.

How to Clean a Room  was written by a mother of 15 children and what she says about cleaning a room makes a lot of sense and to me seems to have a pattern that will help you to actually be able to get the room clean. 

Jeff's Birthday!

This year Jeff didn't really want to go anywhere or do something for his birthday, so we stayed home.
I made him blueberry muffins for breakfast.  Jeff mowed and did some yard work, which he enjoys, while I went grocery shopping in the morning.

In the afternoon, he got to attempt taking a nap :) Then we packed a few boxes, Jeff's mom and sister came over for a little while and helped and wished him a happy birthday.  Around 5 pm we celebrated as a family and gave him his presents and had cake (Felicity was napping, so she couldn't personally be in the picture).

After we had cake I order stuffed crust pizza, as that was his birthday meal request.