Thoughts

Timothy is trying to hide from the camera.

These three playing together....priceless!

I love this wrap!! I can have both hands free.

I originally wanted to title this post "Confessions" but I am not quite sure that is the best title. There is really nothing to confess just wanting to share my thoughts or heart with you. Life with 5 kiddos is really a house full of "I don't know what will happen next" for me. I know with all my being that God has given each one of these little blessings to me and I can't begin to imagine life with out them. Bryan and I are so blessed with 5 children. I feel that the Lord is doing a great work in my life through my children and that He has given each one for a reason. With baby #5 here, I believe that God is trying to help me be a little more laid back. If you know me at all you know that I would love for my house to be in order and all my ducks in a row every day. Guess what...with 5 kiddos under the age of 10 I am beginning to realize that that is NOT going to happen (i.e. I need to be more laid back). Don't get me wrong I think that my house needs to be presentable and decent but I am coming to realize that my children and our relationship is much more valuable than a spotless house. I can't take a clean house to heaven with me but I can take my children. So I need to focus more on my relationship with them and be intentional in leading them to the Lord and quit being so task oriented. You see, with my children I am making an investment in eternity. I will admit that it has been a big adjustment with 5 children but oh the benefits. I will take my 5 children any day over a clean house, the laundry being done, good meals being cooked, all those papers being organized, etc. I will want my children to look back on their childhood and remember the time I spent with them, I know they will never remember if our house was immaculate. Many people have commented "I just don't know how you do it." and I have to admit that I don't do it, it is the Lord walking beside me and leading me along the way. Also the question is asked "Is this it for you?" and I have to reply "I don't know." only the Lord can say. I would be content if God chose to close up my womb and Joanna was the last child, but I also don't want to miss anything that God chooses to bless me with. I pray that God will be glorified in our family either way. OK, so my confession might be that it is a challenge to mother 5 kids, homeschool, be a wife and find time to be with the Lord, but every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before!! :)

2 post in 1

I don't really know which one to share first. I believe I will begin with Elijah writing his name. Last week I gave him and Timothy a place mat that they could draw on. I was watching them but paying closer attention to Timothy as I did not want him writing on anything BUT the place mat. When I looked back at what Elijah was doing this is what I saw. I was amazed! We have been working on writing our name but did not realize that we were this far. I think he did a very fine job. This boy is wanting to learn everything he can soak up and writing his name happens to be one. Great Job, Elijah!!

The next thing I would like to share is about our company this past weekend. My parents came up and spent the weekend. We enjoyed their visit very much and the kids are always so excited to see them! At this visit my parents watched the kiddos while Bryan and I had a "date" (Joanna went with us). That was so nice, Thanks mom and dad! While we were gone my mother took Elijah and Sarah to the Cracker Barrell. Isaac is not fond of eating there so my dad stayed with him and Timothy. As I have said Elijah loves everything blueberry and he has been talking about blueberry pancakes, so my mother just had to take him to get blueberry pancakes. Well you may have guessed it, they did not just eat breakfast....they also shopped and come back bearing gifts. You are right, my parents know just how to spoil my kids and they do a very good job of it!! :) Elijah and Sarah enjoyed their time with my mom and Isaac and Timothy loved having Paw all to theirself. Sunday was also mine and Joanna's first Sunday back at church and it was nice for my mom and dad to be here to help make that happen. Because Bryan has to be at church early on Sunday, Sunday mornings can be a little crazy around here. Someone asked me "How was it getting all 5 kids ready for church" and my reply was that my mom and dad were here so they needed to ask me that again next Sunday morning! LOL!! My parents are always a huge blessing when they come and I am so thankful for them!!

The boys are showing off their matching shirts and stick horses. Thanks Maw for the horses!

Sarah loves these paper doll magnet things. Bryan's mom got her one while they were here when Joanna was born and then my mom got her this one.

My dad was so tickled to get to spoil Joanna. He use to come and watch the boys while I took Sarah to piano when we were in Alabama and when I would come back this is how I would find him and Timothy. Dad got to hold and rock Joanna a good bit while they were here. Thanks dad!

Mom got Isaac this checkers game at the Cracker Barrell.

My sweet mom ironing our church clothes for us. She is great about helping when they are here on Saturday night to get things together for Sunday morning. I pick out their clothes and she irons them for me. Thanks mom!!

Big Brother

Isaac has loved football for awhile and enjoys playing it. Sometimes his favorite part is winning!!

This is a picture of Isaac talking to my Dad on the phone. If those two ever get started I have to call "Times Up" so Isaac will get off. Him and my dad have a special relationship.

I haven't posted about Isaac in a long time and I wondered if some of you have thought that I have lost him or something. LOL!! Isaac is a very special boy. Not just because he is the oldest. He is just special in many ways. We never had to get on to him as much as we have Elijah and probably Timothy. He has always been the child that never was or has been mischievous. He has never liked to get his hands dirty or make a mess. Has always been quiet and a good boy. No, he is not perfect...he can aggravate the other kids so much that it causes chaos and he likes to be boss to Elijah and that is NOT going to happen. He has his moments but he is a good child and I am so proud of him. He is very smart, probably too smart at some things. He loves math and does really well at catching on to learning new things in math. He likes to read, maybe not as much as Sarah, but he reads just about as much as she does. There are times that Isaac's heart is just overflowing with love. An example would be this past Sunday night he bought Sarah a CD of her favorite sermon by our pastor to give to her on Valentine's Day. Then he also got out his money and gave all of us a dollar for Valentine's Day, I know a dollar is not much but to him it was alot. I could go on all day about Isaac but I think you get the picture.

Sisters!

Sarah when she was born.

Joanna when she was born.

Sarah taking a nap on our bed.

Joanna taking a nap on our bed.

Sarah hanging out in her swing.

Joanna hanging out in her bouncy seat.

Wanted to post about these two girls! I wanted to share some neat things about them. Both girls were born at different hospitals than the boys. ALL three boys were born at the same hospital and delivered by the same Doctor. Both girls were born with more hair than the boys. Sarah still had more hair than any of the kids. Both girls have dark hair and the boys have blonde until they get a little older. The girls were born in months that start with "J". I think these things are neat and fun to think about. Sarah is so glad to have a sister. As many of you know she has prayed for a long time that God would give us a baby girl. She had prayed for a girl when I was expecting Timothy and then he was a boy, talk about a disappointed little girl. She is crazy about Timothy and is a very good sister to him, but she really wanted a baby sister. She thinks Joanna is great! I am so thankful that God gave Sarah a sister and that these two girls have each other. I would have loved to have a sister (or brother) but that was not in God's plans for me. My prayer is that the girls will always be close and that all our children would be close and the best of friends. I know they will have their moments but my prayer is that those moments would draw them closer to Jesus and one another.

Yummy!!

I had posted that when we brought Joanna home from the hospital and we all had the flu, that the people from church were so good to us. We had meals brought to us for almost two weeks, what a blessing that was to us! Everything we had was so delicious. People also brought desserts and the kids loved those! One of the desserts was chocolate iced cupcakes with fun fetti cake. The little boys loved them and you knew it just by looking at their faces. I took these pictures of the boys eating the last two cupcakes. I could not resist taking these pictures because I just loved the mustaches and gotees. Don't those faces make you want a cupcake?

Brothers, everybody needs one!

These boys are CRAZY about their baby sister. I remember when Timothy was born how crazy Elijah was about him and wanted to hold him all the time. I just knew that with these two being so close that they wouldn't want anything to do with a new baby. Boy was I wrong!!! If Joanna is awake they are all over her and talking to her and wanting to hold her. They love her so much and it shows. I really have to watch her when they are around, I can just see one of them bringing her to me or trying to pick her up, this would not be good. I wonder how this will all play out the bigger she gets. I am so thankful that she has big brothers to protect her and watch out for her and I am glad the boys have sisters, so they will know how to treat a girl and how to protect a girl. If you are like me and don't have a brother, you may not know what it is like but I am so thankful that I can see it in my children and that they have each other.

Can't you see that "Proud" look in his eyes? He is always giving her kisses!!

Another proud brother! Elijah thinks he is as big as anybody and he just loves to hold her.

Learning to read with Daddy! These two boys are not only crazy about Joanna but they think their Daddy is the greatest thing since sliced bread!! They love their daddy and Elijah is real quick to tell me that he loves his Daddy more than me...and I believe it!!! Elijah and Timothy also love each other. They are the best of buddies! If you see one you see the other. This can be a good thing or a bad thing, as you can see in the picture below....

They are "cleaning" the wall with toothpaste. This was the 2nd time we had caught Elijah this week "cleaning" the walls. See, he doesn't like his toothpaste and wants me to buy him some more but I told him he had to finish this toothpaste first...well he got rid of it quickly. The first time he was alone in his cleaning business but this time he decided to include his brother. Also, my mother ordered candy bar birth announcements for Joanna and like alot of us my boys love chocolate. The other week these two were very quiet and I found them both under the table having a "chocolate feast", then yesterday I found both of them in the pantry having another "chocolate feast". I thought I had hid the candy bars but I guess I had not hid them well enough. (They are on the top shelf now) Then yesterday Elijah had wrote on the walls. He came to me and informed that Timothy had written on the walls. I asked him to show me where, when he did there was the letters E, O, B and I know that Timothy has not learned his letters yet but Elijah has...so guess who actually wrote on the wall. This is just a glimpse into what my days are like around here. Never a dull moment!!! LOL!! :)

She is growing so fast!

This past Friday Joanna was 3 weeks old! So hard to believe that she is been here 3 weeks already. We are so glad she is here and we can hold her and love on her. She is a very good baby. If she is awake the kids are all wanting to hold her and talk to her. I just love it that the other kids are crazy about her!! I am sure some people want to know if her name is biblical since the rest of our kids have Bible names...yes it is. Luke 8:2 tells of some women who ministered to Jesus and served Him. Joanna is one of those women. We desire that our Joanna be a servant of the Lord and serve Him all the days of her life. We are so thankful for her and for our other children. The Lord has blessed us....Thank you Jesus!!

It's a school day!

Timothy loved playing with clay. I had to keep reminding him to NOT put it in his mouth!! He said he made a dog. :)

This is Elijah's blueberries! He loves blueberries, and would like blueberry everything!!

Sarah will be on the cooking channel one day. This is her cake she made! She loves to be creative!

This is Isaac's creation. Not quite sure what it is, but he had fun! This is my child that struggles to use his imagination, so I am just glad he used it.

I made a tree. Not too bad for an old woman! LOL!!

After coming home with Joanna and being sick for a week, we have been trying to adjust to normal life. With Bryan back at work and two homeschooling, a new baby and 2 that our all BOY, I have been trying to put together a routine that works for us. This past week has actually been good. Monday was a challenge but the rest of the week has been really good (Bryan & some friends have been praying). The two that are homeschooling have been finishing their work really quick which allows them to help me with the two younger boys and for us all to be able to do some things together. One day this week we got out our modeling clay and used our imaginations. The kids had a blast and it was fun for mommy too. This is one of those things I love about homeschooling my kids, we can have fun together!! So I thought I would share a picture of the things the kids made with their clay. I think this is something we will do on a regular basis. Who knows what next week will be like, but I am praying that God will give wisdom to know what to do each day. With God I will take one day at a time. I am so thankful for this life that He has given me!!

Elijah has been learning his letters. I have tried to make it fun and come up with some creative ideas on writing our letters. One day this week I decided that I would put some chocolate syrup on a plate and let him write his letters on the plate. He did really well on the letters we have been learning. As you can see in the picture he wrote an "A". Then was the best part, I let him lick the chocolate off the plate. He loved it! I think he is so cute, with or without chocolate on his face. :)

New Glasses

Sarah got glasses 2 years ago this month and they have been such a blessing. The only problem is that Timothy thinks he can grab them and run! The other day as I was helping Isaac with Math and Sarah was folding clothes, Timothy reached and grabbed them. Elijah thought he would save the day and get them from Timothy but instead the boys broke her glasses. She was so upset because she needs her glasses and she can't be without them. So we called the eye Dr. and they asked for her to come in. The Dr. ordered her a new pair and we got them today. Sarah picked them out and we agreed on them. I was worried because I am so use to her old glasses, but these look really good on her. Of coarse I think she looks beautiful in both pairs of glasses.

First Bike Ride

I am behind on posting this, but I wanted to share. When Isaac was little we got this seat to go on the back of Bryan's bike. Isaac loved riding with Bryan. As all the kids have gotten big enough and could enjoy it they have taken a ride with Daddy. We had let Bryan's brother borrow it for their little boy. We got the bike back at Thanksgiving, so it was now Timothy's turn. Timothy has become a Daddy's boy so he loved just being with his Daddy. He really did like it and thought he was big! Of coarse the day they rode was beautiful and the other kids got out their bikes and rode along side Daddy and Timothy. I love the picture of them all riding down the road together. One day it will be Joanna's turn!!

Below I have posted a picture of the other kids on their first bike ride with Daddy!

Isaac

Sarah

Elijah