A Dream.....

I feel like I need to document this emotional journey of the last couple of weeks. This whole pregnancy, I have been thankful for a healthy baby, and have been prepared to have another little boy. Jonah melts my heart so much and is so fun-loving that I can't imagine not welcoming another sweet boy. However, knowing this will be our last baby, I was really dreaming of having 1 more girl. Julia is so sweet and brings a softer element to our house, among all of these boys. She has been praying for a sister for so many years. I can't deny that I would love to balance out all of these boys a little, too. Plus, we have 3 upstairs bedrooms available to the kids and a girl would also allow a nice division among the rooms : 2 boys, 2 boys and 2 girls. I prayed and prayed. I worked hard not to get my heart set on a girl, but the desire was always there and I would share that with God constantly (while trusting His perfect plan).

     At 16 weeks (2 1/2 weeks ago), I had an ultrasound with my OB. I started to get really nervous because, that day, it dawned on me that I may find out the gender. My OB looked and looked and all he would tell me is that he "couldn't see anything between the legs". I don't think I realized how much those words would torture me for the next 2 weeks. It gave me a hope that it might be a girl but it was really too early to confirm anything. So, all of these months, all the work I put in to trying to convince myself it was a boy, was kind of starting to fade. I didn't want that. I didn't want to start envisioning the baby as a girl, unless I knew for sure. I needed to guard my heart. It was a long 2 weeks because of how hard I had to work on controlling my thoughts.
     So, last Wednesday (at 18 weeks), I was at the perinatologist for an ultrasound. My appointment was at 4:00 and I was so nervous. I continued to be tested as I sat in the waiting room until 5:45, when they called me back...the last appt of the day. Well....both the assistant and the Dr. confirmed that it was a girl. I thought I would faint. My heart was beating so hard during my ultrasound (before I found out it was a girl) that the assistant said it sounded like the baby's heartbeat. I found it so hard to believe them and had them tell me over and over. They even gave me a picture to take home with the "3 little lines" to show me it was a girl. When I left, I felt like I was floating on a cloud. I cried on the way home.
    The kids wanted me to tell them in person. So, I stopped at the party store on the way home and got a bunch of pink balloons. When I walked in the door, all the kids came running to greet me. Their jaws dropped and they all screamed and jumped with happiness. There was a giant group hug. Julia told me that she felt like she needed to cry for Joy. So, she clung onto me and whaled for quite a while. The boys kept checking to see if she was ok. It was so surreal and so fun to see how excited everyone was.
     Today is Sunday, and it still hasn't completely sunk in. Every time I think about it, I can't believe it. God is so good to give me my heart's desire, even though I don't deserve it at all.  I am so humbled. God is good...even when He answers us differently than what we ask for...but He has been so gracious to us. The funny thing is, if I had a girl instead of Jonah, I have a feeling I would have felt "complete" and maybe wouldn't have had such a strong desire for another baby. Then, I wouldn't have sweet Jonah. I am so happy that it happened this way. Now I have Jonah and a baby girl on the way.      Excited for a new journey again, after not having a baby girl for 8 years! It should be fun. (And....so many cute girlie things have come out in the last 8 years!)  I am even excited for Jonah to have a baby sister, because Josh and Julia have such a sweet relationship with each other. I feel like I MAY just finally have a feeling of "completion" after this little one. I never have felt like our family was complete. The Lord always put this desire in my heart for another baby. I can't know for sure now, but I am hoping and praying to have that feeling after this precious one is born. Loving this baby and excited to meet her. The kids are wishing it was already June. In some ways, I agree with them!

Griffith Park

When our 2 oldest boys were young, we use to love taking them to Griffith Park. There is this cute little place with train and pony rides and then Travel Town Museum is at the other end of the park. Jeremy use to be so obsessed with trains, that they loved to go and climb on all of them! Today was the 1st time we took Jonah there. He loves anything with a motor and/or wheels : trucks, trains, planes, cars....etc. 

When we got there, he was so excited to be out of his stroller and running around. The thing that cracks me up about him is his funny little "trot" he does. He doesn't run. He frolics, or gallops, or trots. I really don't know how to explain it but it is totally hysterical and we crack up about it all the time. The more excited he is, the more dramatic the frolicking! I had to post this picture because it actually caught him in action!

I think the kids were more excited for him to ride the little train than he was. But once he heard the whistle and it started moving, he was beside himself.

Very happy after his ride!

Then......he got to go on his 1st pony ride. He felt so "big". We loved his proud expression. I couldn't believe how little he looked as the pony circled the track with him.

Then, of course, he had a blast chasing the pigeons.  

And he took his 1st drink from a drinking fountain....big day for little man!

Then, we finished up by looking at and climbing in the trains at Travel Town. He will probably never remember this day...but we will. :)

Halloween 2010

 Halloween was fun again. We have a tradition of going down to the Hartungs' house and trick-or-treating with a huge group of people. The kids had a good time dressing up and being with their good friends!

 Kip, from Napoleon Dynamite

Some sort of wizard?

 Jack Sparrow

Princess Tiana, from Princess and the Frog

Our sweet little monkey

October co-op

So, this year and last year, we have transitioned from meeting every Friday, to meeting about once a month. There are so many contributing factors. One of them is that the kids go to classes 2 days a week now...so 3 days of being gone would be too much (we would never get any of our work at home done). Other reasons were babies, pregnancies and bed rest over the last 2 years. It just became too hard to be prepared EVERY week. It is working out really well this way. We study science, Story of the world (history in chronological order), and usually try to celebrate a holiday that is nearby.

So, after our study of the different parts of the brain and the brain lobes, as well as history, we had some fun.

The kids decorated Halloween cupcakes. Julia, as you can see, refused to wash her face painting off from the day before. We did, however, take a shower and scrub it off after co-op :)

Stefanie had a fun craft idea of modge podging glass jars with Halloween characters, to put votive candles in. The kids had tons of fun with it. Jacob told me it was his favorite craft we have done in co-op thus far.

Here are the final results: We have ghosts, pumpkins, monsters and creative designs.
They turned out really cute!
Here are my kids' lit up after!

Fall Festival

Our learning center had a cute little Fall Festival for the kids. They dressed up in costumes that day and could purchase tickets to participate in fun activities. It was really cute and the kids had a great time.

Julia has a different costume for Halloween but grandma picked this up for her to dress up with also. She decided to wear this one to school. She was so excited. The boys were too cool to dress up.

There were lots of activites. Julia's favorites were the face painting and the nail painting tables.

Kaitlyn and Julia

Very happy with her face painting.

Julia and Christina
Julia and Molly

Olive Moore giving Jonah a kiss! :)

On the Mend.....

Well....it has been a long week. All 5 kids ended up getting the stomach flu. Like dominoes, they each threw up, one after the other. Louie and I felt pretty awful for about 2 days: really bad stomach ache, nausea, headache, weak, tired, etc. You get the picture. However, I am happy to say that neither one of us ever threw up. We were spared. Thank you Lord! We still felt awful, but throwing up seems worse. My house piled up around me all week. This all started the day of my car accident. However, things could be a lot worse and I am thankful we are ll healthy again. No word on my car, yet. But that is just a "thing", right? So...we won't worry about that right now. just happy to be gaining back energy so I can go back to enjoying serving my family! :)

This is a better view than what my house has looked like this past week. This is after everyone started on their way to being well again. Prior to this....the picture was much worse!!!

The Saga Continues....

Well...I kind of thought we dodged a bullet.....I was wrong. After I wrote yesterday, Jonah threw up 3 or 4 more times. So...we pretty much figured he had some sort of flu. He never acted super sick though. Today, he was a bit fussier and seemed to rub his head quite a bit as if he had a headache. However, the rest of us remained fine. So....I was getting a bit excited that we may all stay well. I was wrong. Now, tonight, when it was time to go to Awana and youth group, Jake started complaining he didn't feel well. So, he stayed home with me and Jonah. While the rest of the kids were at church, he threw up twice. The other kids got home, I went down to greet them and found Jeremy throwing up in the kitchen sink. Once he composed himself, he told me he threw up in the bathroom at youth group. Both have thrown up several times since. Good times. Terrified of who might get it next. It came on so quickly that I am nervous it will hit someone in the middle of the night. This is going to be a long night. Praying I don't get it.....not sure how I would take care of anyone!

Friday Fun Night!!!

So, today was our 2nd day at home, implementing our 1/2-hour schedule. I feel like it ran even more smoothly today. Everyone knew what to expect. It started to run a little more like a well-oiled machine. We still have a few kinks here and there. I still need to work on being flexible within the structure. But, we are loving it, overall.

Today, I made dividers in a binder and labeled them for the days we are home. I put each of the schedules behind the appropriate day of the week, in page protectors. Then, we got out our dry-erase marker. The kids may have had a little too much fun with this...but it did the trick. After they accomplished what was in each block of time, they "X'd" that box. The younger ones kind of went to town with this. (Don't know that it's necessary to go quite this far, normally). Any excuse to write with a dry-erase marker! I thought I would take a picture of our messy completed schedule to show you. Anyway, we have already erased it...and it is clean and ready for next Friday! :) Until Monday, the binder goes on the book shelf in the classroom!

On another note, my oldest son had ANOTHER birthday party to go to tonight, and it's a sleepover (and he has ANOTHER one tomorrow afternoon). My husband is at work tonight, so it's just me and the other 4 kids. The baby doesn't know any different, but we just completed a pretty full week and I want the kids to be able to relax and have fun tonight (and not be too sad that their older brother and dad are gone). So....I bought whole wheat pizza dough and the fixin's at Tader Joes and let the kids each make their own pizza for dinner. Funny thing is: They only wanted cheese. That's ok, though. The point is that they get to make it the way they want. (Normally, I think it's fun to put out a bunch of different topping.) Anyway, it's a simple thing but they were excited!

After pizza tonight, we are going to have a family movie night and they get to have dessert. Then, they get to camp out and sleep together, somewhere other than their normal bed! My kind of night....a quiet one at home with family! I wouldn't rather spend it any other way (except having my oldest son and husband home- and then hubby and I could watch a movie after the kids were all in bed).

1st Day of "schedule" and 2nd day home alone!

Well.....I have 2 days to update.

Yesterday I had all the kids home and it was our 1st official Full Day at home, utilizing out 1/2 hour block schedule and the kids' clipboard checklists. Overall, it was a hit. It was a super duper busy day, don't get me wrong. But, I am tired of just trying to get through the day and delegating all day long what the kids need to be doing. It wastes so much time and energy. I put the 4 page chart on a clipboard on the kitchen counter. The kids kept running in, every half hour, to see what they were supposed to be doing next. A couple of the time periods seemed a bit too long and a couple seemed a little too short. So, I took notes on the chart as we went through the day. I will probably do this for a few more "home days" and then will tweak it and print out a new one. I also think I want to put them inside plastic page protectors so that we can cross them off with a dry erase marker as we complete them. I am a list maker and find so much enjoyment in crossing things off. It's almost a disorder. Sometimes when I complete a task, and realize it wasn't on my list.....I write it down, just so I can cross it off. I know...scary. Anyway...It was nice not to spend mental energy trying to figure out what to have everyone do, every minute of the day. I just had to check my chart. The kids enjoyed the structure and the accomplishment of completing their tasks.....and checking them off their clipboard lists!!!! (maybe a couple of them will be like me.......uh oh)

With that said, today is the 2nd day that the kids were in class all day. I have to admit that after the crazy, long day yesterday, I couldn't wait for the kids to go to classes today (did I just say that?) I was a lot better this morning than Tuesday (although my husband was a huge help, too, this morning). I left the house in one piece, the kids had all their stuff, I had all my lists...and my coffee. We were even early! So, I ran a couple of quick errands and excitedly came back to my quiet home and laid the baby down. Today was simliar to Tuesday. I got some computer work done, stuff put away....and started to bake some more snacks to freeze for my kids. (By the way....they LOVED the snacks I made Tuesday...and so did my husband. It also made me happy to serve them to the baby).

Today, I made 2 things. I wanted to make another one but was missing one ingredient....drag. So, I'll save that for another day. these are recipes that I got from my "friend's" blog. One was from her and one was a recipe that a reader posted.

The 1st one is called "Monkey Bars". It's made with bananas, natural sugar, whole wheat flour, dried fruit and chocolate chips. It smells really good....hope the kids like it. Jonah had some when he woke up and he loved it!
Here are the Monkey Bars before going in....

Here's the recipe:

1 2/3 cup mashed banana (about 5 medium bananas)
1/2 cup raw sugar
1/4 cup oil (or melted butter)
1/4 cup milk
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup raisins/chocolate chips/nuts (I used chocolate chips and cranberries)

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a jelly roll pan with foil. Whisk bananas, sugar, oil, milk, eggs, vanilla, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl until well combined. Whisk in flour just until it is blended, then gently stir in 1/2 of the raisins (or other substitutes). Spread batter in prepared pan, and sprinkle remaining raisins on top. Bake about 15 minutes, or until a tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack.

When the cookies are cool, slice them carefully into 40 pieces, removing the foil as you go. These stay moist and delicious for several days in an air-tight container at room temperature. For longer store, it's best to freeze them.

And here they are ready to cool and be sliced....

I don't know about you, but my kids have become junk food junkies. They love processed foods. That is why I am on this "kick". I really want to eliminate some of that and have more wholesome snacks when we can. So, looking at the above ingredients (I forgot to include the coconut oil) that were called for in the recipe for "Breakfast Cookies".....I was happy to make these cookies for my kids. I will be even happier if they like them.

Look at how healthy this batter looks! I just had to stop and take a picture.

And, finally....here they are ready to go in, and after they came out!

I'm anxious for my guinea pigs to get home from school and try their new snacks. I froze a lot of what I made today so I can use them next week....but I kept some out for everyone to enjoy today and tomorrow! Hoping to stick to our "schedule" again tomorrow...........

Last Hurrah, Part 2 (a little out of order)

It seems kind of funny to post this now, since we are in full swing of our school year. However, on the Friday before classes started (less than a week ago), Stefanie and I decided to take the afternoon to have our official "Last Hurrah" before the real crazy schedule had begun. So, we simply packed a lunch and got our kids together at the pool. Most summers we do many beach and pool days but the last 2 summers were different. Last summer I had a newborn and she was pregnant, and this summer was just plain crazy for both of us. I was gone almost all summer until the end of July and she had lots of people in her life that were moving and she needed to spend time with them. So, this is only our 2nd official day getting together all summer....pretty amazing. Although, we email things night and day so we are in touch constantly....

Anyway, Stefanie and I grew up next door to each other from the time I was in 2nd grade and she was in 1st. We went through high school together and lived in the same dorm at Masters College. All of our kids are about the age, only staggered. They have paired up so amazingly with each other and have become the best of friends. We are so thankful for how much they love each other and how well they play together (or now "hang out", as teens do). We got some sweet pictures that day....which was important to me, as they seem to change so much from year to year. So, as a record, I wanted to post them. (sorry there are a lot again....I am not learning to cut back very well). :)

Josh and Jaden

Joshua and Jaden

Olivia and Julia

Jonah and Isabella

Luke and Jake

My Jeremy and Josh, Her Jaden and Luke

Jaden and Josh

Our oldest: Jeremy, Andrew and Christine (the teens) !

Jeremy and Andrew: they are crazy about each other

Julia, Christine and Olivia (Christine is such a sweet helper with them)
Mini-Me's!