Stairs!

Micah has mastered going up the stairs!  He is so proud of himself for being able to get all the way up by himself!  There's only one problem...he doesn't know how to go down yet!

Christmas Decorating!

The day after Thanksgiving we spent the day putting up our Christmas decorations.  It was so much fun!!! I love Christmas!  We don't put up much beyond the tree, since our house is small it drives me CRAZY to have too much out, so maybe someday when we have a bigger house we will do more.  Elijah was the designated picture taker while Mark and I put up the tree.  He did a pretty good job!  We did have to take a break and run to the store in the middle of our decorating though...all our lights for the tree were not working! Everything looks so beautiful and festive, almost magical, I LOVE it!!!

Another Black Eye

Someone in our family aquired another black eye...Josiah!  He was taking a bath, slipped, and hit his head on the side of the tub!  Ouch!

Bug Killing!

So, Emmaline came to me today and said "Mom, I killed a bug in my room!  Do you want to come and see it?"  Me, "hmm, I guess so".  Upstairs to her room, and discover she didn't kill just any bug but a wasp! (or some kind of bee, not exactly sure what).  She just took a block and smashed it!  The other half of it was across the bed!  Not me, I don't go near them if I can help it!  Brave girl!

First Snow!

We finally had our first snowfall a few weeks ago!  I was beginning to think we would have a completly dry winter...  We only got about a 1/4 " but it was so beautiful.  The kids were so excited, Elijah wanted to build a snowman! Mark and I had to explain to him that there wasn't enough snow to make a snowman but maybe "next time".  (IF there is a next time, you never know with Colorado!)

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving we went to my mom's house for the day.  We almost didn't go because my Uncle was there also and he was VERY sick.  After talking about it though we decided to go anyway, and had a wonderful time!  And none of us got sick!  I forgot to take pictures but everything was lovely!  My mom had everything you could possibly want for a Thanksgiving feast!  She even made pecan pie, my favorite!  We played games and just had a great day!

Emmaline's 5th Birthday

     Our little Princess turned 5 last week!  We celebrated by having a small birthday party for her with our immediate family.  (I have decided to try and keep the birthday parties as small as possible.)   Both sets of grandparents were there, as well as almost all the cousins, Aunts and Uncles, so it's still a pretty big crowd!

Bookshelves

Recently online I saw the idea of rain gutter bookshelves -
http://raisingolives.com/2009/07/raingutter-book-shelves-tutorial/

Elijah and Josiah's bookshelves

Emmaline's bookshelf

I thought that they were so neat and decided to put them up in my kids rooms.  Mark and I took a Saturday and went to the store to purchase all the materials.  The intention was to hang them up when we got home but... Mark went to hang them and couldn't find the studs, as whoever built our house did not space them evenly!  So, we had to go back to the store and get a stud finder!  After getting the stud finder though it was a very simple matter to hang them up and took Mark all of 15 minutes.  I really like how they look and the kids seem to read the books that are on them a lot. (Technically only Elijah can read but that's not the point!)  I think they look pretty nice!

Cooking Fun!

After reading a friend's blog about allowing her kids to cook, I decided to give some of my kiddos a chance to cook too.  Elijah was the first one to give it a try, I let him make corn muffins from a box mix.  He had a great time and required minimal supervision since he can read!  They turned out really good and he was soooo proud of himself!

Jeremiah's 2nd Birthday!

For Jeremiah's 2nd Birthday we celebrated with a old west/farm theme.  I made a barn cake and animal cupcakes and we decorated with "rescued" decorations leftover from VBS this summer.

After much prayer and discussion we decided to only have family at his birthday party.  Jeremiah finds large crowds to be overwhelming and usually has a "melt down" when he is overwhelmed.  So, it was just grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, which is still a big crowd (13 adults and 10 kids counting our family)!

Fall Leaves!

Elijah, Emmaline, Josiah, Jeremiah and I had a great time last week raking up all the leaves in our front yard and jumping into the pile!  It had been very still the whole week prior so all the leaves from our tree ended up in our yard instead of blowing away.  Normally we don't need to rake up the leaves, we just leave them and the wind takes care of them for us!  We had a pretty good size pile going and the kids had fun burying each other, throwing the leaves up in the air and making "leaf angels" (snow angels in the leaves).  After the kids got tired of jumping in the leaves we played duck duck goose and freeze tag.  It was a lot of fun!

Some Various Pictures

Micah, 8 months, practicing his crawling

Mark and Emmaline, 4 1/2, at a birthday party

Josiah, 3, Elijah, 6, and Jeremiah, 23 months at the same birthday party

Elijah and Emmaline, playing together

Elijah and his "robot"

A Taste of Summer...

Today it was over 80 degrees here!  Hot, Hot, Hot!  It doesn't feel like fall at all, even though the leaves are all changing, and the pumpkins and fall decorations are all out.  Since it feels like summer I let the kids have popsicle's as a special treat and they were on cloud 9! (This really was today, I don't know why the date stamp is so off...)

Crawling!

Micah started crawling last week!  He is still getting the hang of the whole process, but he can get from one side of the room to the other in a relatively short amount of time!  I love to watch babies crawl, it gives them so much joy to be able to move and keep up with everyone else!  :-)  Micah also has mastered moving in our walker, he can zoom around in that very well!  He LOVES to be able to keep up with all his siblings!  Between the two things he is quite mobile for only 8 months!

Airshow

Last week we went to an air show/car show in Akron, CO.  It is about a 3 hour drive from here one way.  We left at 7:45 a.m. and arrived there about 10:30 a.m., just in time for the start of the show.  We got to see an F-16 fly, a wing walker, several aerobatic older planes do stunts, RC planes flying around, a World War II reenactment and tons of classic cars!  It was great fun, especially for Mark.  The only downside was the heat; over 90 and not a cloud in the sky!  We all came home with sunburns, mine was the worst, I looked like
a lobster!   

State Fair 2010

We went to the State Fair the end of August.  We try to go every year, and the kids love it!  They had such a good time!  :-)  Last year it rained and rained and we were all soaking wet by the time we went home.  This year the weather was beautiful, not too hot or cold, just perfect for a day outside!

Josiah was just tall enough to ride on the carnival rides this year and he was so excited he didn't want to stop even when he was exhausted!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anniversary

Mark and I celebrated our 7th anniversary last week! My parents were able to take the kids for a couple of days so we were able to be alone for the most part (Micah is still nursing so he had to come with us). It was so nice! We went to a hotel one night and also went mini golfing, out for ice cream, swimming, hiking at Helen Hunt Falls and out to dinner at Jake and Telly's (a greek restaurant in Old Colorado City). We had a great time! I'm already looking forward to next year...

Growing up so fast...

Elijah lost his first baby tooth! He came to me one day and said "Look mom!" and showed me that his baby tooth was just hanging on by a thread. About 2 minutes later, pop! out it came. He was so proud, he showed everyone and told everyone that he was getting "grown up". He even put it under his pillow and was AMAZED to find a quarter there in it's place the next morning. :-) Since then we had to go and get his other front tooth pulled because his adult teeth came in behind his baby teeth and the baby tooth wouldn't come out on it's own. He is growing up so fast...

4th of July

For the 4th we went over to a friends house for the afternoon and evening. We all had a great time! Our friend barbequed and we all brought picnic type sides. Our kids had so much fun playing with all the kids that were there. It rained buckets in the evening but they still did some fireworks at the Air Force Academy that we were able to watch from the back deck. It was a great day!!!

Micah newest acheivement

This week Micah started rolling over! He rolls from his back to his stomach and once he gets there he can't get back so he just starts crying! He seems so young to me to be rolling over but I guess it's just because I'm not ready for him to be growing up at all. He also shows interest in table food but I am NOT going to start him on solids yet!

Carrots!

I was given 15 lbs of baby carrots that were close to their expiration date. They are a great blessing but I wasn't sure what to DO with that many carrots. I spent some time online and found out how to freeze carrots. Then I spent all afternoon Saturday chopping, blanching and packing up my carrots. It is such a good feeling to get them all done and know that they are there in my freezer when I need them.

Summer Fun!

Last week was very warm, over 90 most days so I decided to let the kids run in the sprinkler. :-) They had so much fun!!! Josiah was by far the most adventurous, even trying to stop the sprinkler with his feet! Monkey see, monkey do, once he did that then Elijah and Emmaline had to try it too. Jeremiah stayed at the perimeter and was fine so long as he did not get water on his face. They have all been asking every day since when they can do it again, but unfortunately we are now in a "cold snap", overnight it went from 90 + to mid 50's! It has been raining a lot too so it will probably be awhile before they can.

Elijah's 6th Birthday

We celebrated Elijah's birthday today. What a day! We had 14 adults and 19 children come. It was pretty crazy. The party started at 3:30 but the guests started arriving at 2:45 and the last ones arrived at 4 so we had a HUGE window of time where everyone was just sitting around. Fortunately we had quite a few who liked to talk to so that helped to keep things going. For the first time ever I tried to have a game for the kids. That was a fiasco, none of the kids wanted to follow any sort of rules and just ended up throwing things all over the place. Then we served up the cake and ice cream. That went better than expected, all things considered. The kids all ate out back which kept the mess to a minimum. After everyone was done with their cake I wanted to let the kids play a bit to run off some energy before we did the gifts. We had some decorative border blocks out back and one of the kids (we don't know who) moved them all into our play castle. Then, one of the girls was in the castle and the tower of blocks collapsed and sliced open the side of her knee. We cleaned it up as well as we could with antiseptic cream and band aids but she will probably need stitches. :-( We opened gifts and then it was like a switch was hit and everyone had to leave at once. For me it was a very stressful time, I think we might be done with birthday parties. Although I asked Mark how he thought it went and he said fine and Elijah had a great time, so we will just have to see...

This weeks toys

I keep several bins of larger toys and once a week I change them out. Today was the day to change it so I got out a new bin, all the little people sets. It always amazes me how long the kids will play with a toy that they haven't seen for a week :-). The bins that I have are lincoln logs, large legos, little people sets and dress up clothes. I tried changing them out every day but for my personality it works better to do it once a week. When we do it this way all the toys get played with but I don't have to have them all out at once. :-) As for the smaller toys, stuffed animals, books and games, I have half of them packed up and the other half out. Once a month I switch them all out. I got this idea from a friend and it works very well for us. Again, all the toys get played with but we are not overrun with toys. :-)

First Black Eye...

Jeremiah had a little run in with the concrete patio out back yesterday and got his first black eye. It looks terrible! Poor guy! He is just getting the hang of walking and tripped over his own feet. Ouch! At least it wasn't one of his siblings fault. :-)

Scary times

This morning while I was nursing Micah we had a very scary thing happen. Jeremiah was on the floor throwing a temper tantrum like he often does. We have learned that it does no good to spank, it only makes him more upset, so in general we just ignore him and he gets it all worked out of his system. But today, I looked over at him and instead of lying still like he usually does he was twitching convulsively. I called Mark to come and look at him, since I couldn't get up to check on him (it's hard to move when nursing a baby). Mark came over and picked Jeremiah up but Jeremiah continued to convulse and his eyes were rolling around. He didn't respond to his name and then he started having difficulty breathing. Mark and I were so scared. I laid Micah down and went running to call 911, while Mark continued to try to keep Jeremiah breathing. The firemen were here within 5 minutes, the longest 5 minutes of my life. I stayed on the phone with the 911 dispatcher and watched Jeremiah in Mark's arms continuing to convulse. Just as the firemen arrived Jeremiah's eyes rolled back in his head and he started drooling on Mark's shoulder. The firemen laid Jeremiah on the couch, stripped him down to his diaper and gave him oxygen. It only took about half a minute for the oxygen to start helping Jeremiah calm down and start breathing okay again. The ambulance arrived while we were giving Jeremiah his oxygen. The paramedics told us that it sounded and looked like Jeremiah had a seizure, but they weren't sure what would have caused it, so they thought it would be best to take him in the ambulance to the ER to be checked out. Mark went with Jeremiah and I stayed at home with the other kids. Mark kept me posted on what was happening at the hospital through text messages. The hospital staff took blood for several tests and also ran a CT scan. It took forever to get the results but they finally came back clear, Jeremiah is completely healthy. The doctor told Mark that Jeremiah probably just held his breath long enough to cause himself to have a seizure. The doctor said it's not normal for that to happen but it's also not something that he has never seen. So, after all that we are supposed to watch Jeremiah carefully for more seizures, try to keep him from throwing temper tantrums and just in general be more cautious. I'm so glad that he is okay and healthy and that everything turned out fine. Praise the Lord!

Broken Window!

I was on the phone yesterday with Mark when all the kids came running in from the backyard where they had been playing. Emmaline told me that the window was "broken" and Elijah chimed right in with the same info. I didn't hear any glass shatter or anything like that so I thought that they were exaggerating, until I went downstairs... half of the sliding glass door was cracked into a million pieces and was still cracking. Fortunately it was safety glass and double paned so it didn't just fall onto the ground or worse blow out into the house. There was a large rock lying on the ground in front of the window so it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what had happened, but figuring out who threw the rock was quite a bit more difficult. Elijah persisted in saying that Emmaline threw it, Emmaline insisted that Josiah threw it and Josiah kept saying that he didn't know who threw it. After MUCH discussion it finally was determined that Emmaline was the culprit. In a houseful of boys it had to be the only girl that threw the rock! Who would have thought a girl could be such a handful!!!

Easter 2010

We spent Easter at my parents house. It was a good day. Both my brothers were there and my sister in law who is pregnant and due any day. It was a lot of fun to spend time as a family, it's hard to get all of us together these days. Mark was able to fly one of his planes, which was a nice treat. It was altogether a really good time. :-)

Grandma's Funeral

Today was my grandma's funeral. It was up in Fort Collins. We had some friends watch Emmaline, Josiah and Jeremiah for the day but we decided to take Elijah with us. And of course Micah has to go where ever I go. :-) Elijah did pretty well with the whole thing although we're not sure he completly understands that great grandma is gone. He put a flower on her casket at the grave side along with all the other great grandkids. I was an honorary pallbearer so I walked along behind the casket. My sister and her husband were able to come from California for the funeral so it was nice to see them even though it wasn't the best of circumstances.

Boys and their toys

Mark has recently started building and flying model airplanes. His current project is a T Craft model airplane, fairly small, relatively speaking. :-) The last one he completed was a piper cub which is really big, the wing is taller than me! He spends lots of time building them and the boys love to come and help or work on their own planes. On Sunday Elijah was working on his airplane, made out of scraps from Mark's plane, and Josiah was working on a little airplane that Mark made for him while Mark worked on his plane. It was so cute I just had to take a picture of them all together. :-)

Little helper!

Every Sunday evening we have tea and snack type foods, usually cheese, crackers, and cookies. Last night Emmaline got on the counter, pulled out some bowls and my mixer, and procedded to pretend to make cookies for us to have with our tea! It was so adorable! Whenever I cook or bake she loves to come and help and yesterday she just decided she would do it on her own. It won't be too many years before she is able to really cook, and what a blessing that will be! :-) I didn't think to take a picture of her cooking but here is a picture of her playing dress-up. She loves to say that she is "God's little princess"!

A rough week . . .

This has been a rough first week with Micah, not because he is a hard baby but because we have all been sick with the stomach flu! Josiah was the first one to get sick on Tuesday, followed by Jeremiah on Thursday, me and Elijah on Friday night and Mark and Emmaline today. It has been pretty miserable for everyone, trying to adjust to a new little one and being sick all at once. Mark got it the worst though. He has spent most of the day in the bathroom, poor guy. :-( In addition to being sick we have had a terrible time trying to find a doctor to do Micah's circumcision. We went to 2 doctors and one refused us care because we don't do all the vaccinations and the other said he wouldn't do the circumcision unless Micah had a Vitamin K shot (We did vitamin K drops since he was born at home). We ended up having to get a prescription for the shot, having our midwife administer it and now we have the circumcision scheduled for next Tuesday. What a major headache!

Our new little one!

Well, the baby finally decided to be born! I went into labor on the morning of Thursday, February 11, at 12:30 a.m. and the baby was born at 3:50 a.m. I had a home water birth and it went really well. This was almost my longest labor and I have decided that long labors are easier than short fast ones. :-) We had another little boy, so now we have 4 boys! We named him Micah Elliot. He weighed in at 8 lbs 3 1/2 oz. and was 20 3/4" long. He is our biggest baby yet, the next biggest one was Josiah at 7 lbs 5 oz. The kids love him, especially Emmaline. She is quite the little mommy, she has spent a lot of time holding him and just looking at him. The kids were a little disappointed that we didn't have a girl but as Emmaline keeps saying, "maybe we'll have a little girl soon!" I don't know about that! I would like a little break...