The trip so far.....

The trip so far has been good. The driving to Dallas (18 hours) and the drive to Atlanta (18 hours in 1 day) was harrowing, to say the least.







The older boys did wonderful...Laz...not so good. Poor little guy is no traveler. Ick. I have no idea how we are getting home cause there is just no way I can survive that long in the car with him again!



The oldest 4 Boyz are at Disney World with Josiah's parents fr a whole week. Great for them...bad for Mama. I miss them! So Laz and I have remained busy spending time with Courtney and Hannah, Karen and her 3 kiddies and Noelle and Fin.



Laz had his very first icecream cone!!! I figured that Brewster's was the only place to indruce him to icecream :) He loved it!



Laz is also LOVING playing with cousin Hannah!!! She mommy's him very well and he plays along. They are SO CUTE together.





My little bity Courtney looks adorable with her baby belly!!!







We took Hannah and Laz to see the baby chicks and ducks...and this is a picture of Laz petting one MOMENTS prior to him hitting the poor thing. Yeah. My violent little man. Who knew.






My little Red Neck child in his John Deer hat! (okay, it is not his....don't worry!)





C-L-A-S-S-I-C Courtney.





Court at her prenatal visit with Claudia, world's best midwife.




Hannah and Laz Pazzzzazzzzzz




A synopsis of the trip so far :)

My brother and his Family

My dear 'little' brother, Nathan, and his beautiful wife courtney are expecting their 2nd baby in March!!! Here they are with the sweetest niece ON EARTH, Hannah. Hannah just turned 2 last week and is very excited about having a baby brother or sister.

The kids and I will be leaving for Georgia in 1 week and 2 days. WHOO-HOO!!!!!!! We will stop in Dallas to see my grandparents for 2 days and then on to Ga to get ready for the birth. Court is using my midwife (i.e. the world's best!) again like she did for Hannah. Courtney had a 3 day labor with Hannah and eventually gave birth in her home, as planned. Lord willing she will have another beautiful homebirth...but for her sake, a faster one!!! Believe me, I will keep everyone posted on the events surrounding this blessed occasion.

Hubbalicious

I must brag for a moment.

Josiah loves me!

Even through his stress...losing his job, finding another, having to move (again), etc...he finds time to show me he loves me.

Yesterday he came home to chaos, which around here, is business as usual. I cooked dinner, we ate, the boyz cleaned up. I mentioned how exhausted I was from the day (school, grocery shopping, detailed the Yukon, Library, etc) and that a nice hot bath sounded so refreshing.

The problem? Our bathtub is filled with clippings of hair from giving the boyz haircuts. I did not have the energy to clean the tub to take a bath.

Oh-and our hot water heater does not even fill up the tub with enough hot water to make it even a warm bath.

So I was downstairs, going about the evenings business, when Josiah called me upstairs. I went into our dark room and he led me into the bathroom.....

...and there was a candle lit room with a *clean* bathtub filled to the brim with bubbles and HOT WATER. He had boiled 3 pots of water and filled the tub for me  :) My book was laying on the side, ready for me to devour. 

Ahhhh. The bliss.

As I soaked, Josiah put the kids to bed...another stress he took on alone just to help me.

All this to remind he that after 12 1/2 years of marriage, 5 kids, 3 states, countless jobs, many houses, stress and tears....he still loves me.    :)

Kellen Micah

Kellen Micah is 9 years old today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

These are all very typical pictures of Kell. Never a serious one, Kell loves to laugh and joke ALL the time. He keeps our entire house in stitches most of the time and really makes life fun  :)

He has been wanting this bike for almost a year now....and was STOKED when we brought it out!!!!!!!!!

We had a wonderful little party with just the family...he wanted to go skiing with friends for his birthday instead of a 'real' party...so much easier on mom as well  :)

And I had to add my little Laz  :)

So sleepy....

It was so cute watching him try and pick up his Cheerios with the Hulk hands on!!! Okay, it was a tad mean so I took them off  :)

And the difference is......

Check THIS out :)

Ha! I found it quite amusing.

Thanks Nate and Courtney!

Hannah (and Nate and Court and the new baby) got Laz a little Curious George for Christmas. He LOVES it!!!  :)

Nathan and Courtney gave Josiah and I a gift card to Texas De Brazil...our favorite place to eat! Not only is there more food than you could ever eat but that food is DELICIOUS....like, Marriage Supper of the Lamb good  :)

Ready to go out on our date...no kids, just us!

Staring at the pretty ceiling. YES, the ceiling really is THAT pretty!

I tend to take pictures of food. Yeah. 

This was plate #1. 

Of 5. 

YES, f-i-v-e.

The all you can fit salad bar.

Oh....and the FANTASTIC drink! 

THANK YOU NATE AND COURTNEY!

Inauguration

The kids and I had school in front of the TV today!

I wanted them to witness history in the making...the first African American president of the United States.

Although we did not vote for Mr. Obama and we certainly do not agree with his politics, we do think that our country has come so far in the past 50-70 years and we are happy about that. And the Bible tells us that God appoints our leaders and we need to pray for them and treat them with respect. So that is what we are going to do.

This also gave us a great opportunity to talk history...racism, slavery, segregation, etc. My kids, who have only been exposed to such in very limited ways, were very rightly appalled. One of them cried and cried, overcome by the fact that one human could treat another so badly.

This led into a discussion about how God could allow this to happen...and what good has come of it. Great stuff.

All in all, it was a learning experience and something that, I hope, they will always remember.

Now...off to send some sort of petition to President Obama regarding the murder of innocent babies! I mean, why is there a difference between a person taken against their will and put into slavery and a person killed while in the womb?

More talk for another day.  :)

Excuse me......

.....call me crazy, but am I the only one who thinks that Mr. Obama is kinda stepping in a tad before his time? I mean, he is not the president YET, but he seems to be doing a lot of presidential stuff prematurely. Asking Congress to approve his stuff...BEFORE he is sworn in? 

Perhaps I am just not familiar with the 'transition' and when/how that takes place.

SO...is he jumping the gun? Is he just getting a running start? Is he overstepping his bounds? Please let me know!

P.S. the things he is pushing to get passed within his first few months are APPALLING. However, I am keeping my word and am going to allow him a grace period to prove himself. I am going to give him a chance. No matter how much I already disagree.

Our own Cowboy

My Baby is 5 years old!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5 years ago today, Presley was born into his Mommy's and Daddy's hands. We were surrounded by our fabulous midwives, Claudia and Debbie...as well as our dearest family and friends. The other 3 boys were right there as well to welcome their new brother!!!

HERE is the birth story in it's entirety. 

Laboring with my wonderful hubby and watchful midwife, Claudia.

The older 3 boys with Grammy and Moo-Ma.

The boys are holding up 4 fingers for 4 boys.

Little did we know that 4 years later they would be holding up 5 fingers for 5 boys!!!  :)

Moments after his birth.

Presley at 1 day old.

Fast forward 5 years!!!!!!!!!

Pancake breakfast!

A typical Presley face.

Presley wanted to go to 'the fe-ater' (theater) instead of having a party...so we went last night. Today the fam did gifts and cake.

He said, "I am 5 this time Daddy!!!!"

Yes, he got a piggy bank for a birthday gift. HELLO....we are Dave Ramsey freaks! Cannot start him to soon on his baby steps  :)

We asked him if he was a "how-boy" and he looked at us like we were insane. We had to explain that he called himself a HOWBOY for years before he could correctly pronounce Cowboy.

*sigh*

He is so old.

REI has the best deals. It is seriously my FAVORITE store!

Hulk cake, of course  :)

“C.S. Lewis once observed, “I haven’t always been a Christian. I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.”

I took this quote form my preacher-man brother's blog...he has some interesting comments. Enjoy!

Funniest birth story EVER

In all my 11+ years of attending births, I have yet to come across such a delightfully written, humorous birth story!

This Mama of 6 knows how to make birth not only a blessed event, but a HYSTERICAL one  :)

Please read...and note the "Where's my baby?!?!" line, for it will be displayed on this blog in the future.

Classic.

FIRST installment

SECOND installment

THIRD installment

Christmastime and Laz turns ONE!!!

Christmas Eve the boyz can open one gift...their special Christmas PJs!!!

Oh-and a gift card to Chick Fil A  :)

Christmas PJs  :)

Christmas morning....STOCKINGS BABY!

Josiah gave me a stocking full of 'relaxing' themed items. LOVE IT  :)

Laz and his new monkey!

Kell upon seeing his Star Wars gift.

Tarin and his Hulk.

Laz enjoyed his wrapping paper!

Hulk was very popular at our home this year.

NEW COWBOY BOOTS!!!

New climbing shoes!!!

After the mayhem. 

Josiah and I made clues for the boyz to follow to lead them to their last gift.

I had bought about 8 costumes for them and hung them up in the bathroom...the clues led them in there....

MooMa and Laz

Gotta try out the new Legos!

Tarin. 

Errr, Hulk!

Laz loves his walking 'thingy'...unfortunately, it will propel him to walking sooner, so we are discouraging that behavior.

Around 2 p.m. we had our cousins Noy, Dawn, Maiza, Bella and Jules over to celebrate Laz's first birthday!!! He did not know what to think of the cake...at first. then he dug on in  :)

All the older cousins.

Opening some -more- gifts!

I LOVE my hubby!  :)

Ethan build this helicopter in a few hours yesterday with his new Erector set.

Yeah.

I am amazed. the kid is incredible! He takes apart circuit boards and creates new things...amazing.