Aug. 25, 2008 - Our First Time Alone, Alone
Well, we're back from a 24 hour mini trip. John and I were actually able to leave all 5 kids at my mom's house Saturday afternoon and pick them up again Sunday afternoon.
Before I get into how much fun we had without any kid responsibilities, let me tell you how Miss Rachel shunned me when we got back home. Ok, so I left her, and her siblings with her beloved Grandma and Grandpa, Saturday around noon. She probably ate lunch and then went down for a nap at 1pm. So between drop off time and bedtime she was only awake for 6 hours. Then she slept most of the night, sorry mom, and had to be woken up for church at 8am. So she was completely unaware of my abandonement of her for those 12 hours as well. Then she was cared for ar church like she usually would have been for another 2 hours. So total she had about 10 hours where she probably wondered where in the world I was.
I say all this to preface her complete and utter rejection of me when we came home. I know I have already mentioned her will of steel and she again made it known that she was very unhappy with me.
When we got back John and I stood side by side to see who she would run to first. I was sure she would totally bypass daddy in favor of her beloved, mommy, her only source of momma's milk. No, she completely ignored me and ran to snuggle in her dadddy's arms. I thought she was just overwhelemd so I dropped to my knees in an effort to see her eye to eye. The only problem was that she made it her mission to prevent ALL eye contact with me! I waved my hands in front of her eyes, I called her name, nothing. she would avert her eyes to anyone but me. I tried to pick her up from John and she screamed bloody murder until I rested her down, still maintaining no eye contact. She kept it up for 15 minutes and then John drove her home in the van and I followed in his car. Once we were home she ran around like all was well with her world, except that she didn't remember having a mommy! I finally was able to hold her briefly and then she screamed for her daddy. Don't you know loved it. He is usually second best and takes the loving she has to offer when she's done loving on me.
I was able to win her over last night as I put her to bed. She isn't ready to give up that nightly nursing,and so she is looking at me again and very glad to see me. I just can't believe she completely ignored me for such a long time and could be capable of such complete rejection. I've got to go now, she is calling me from her crib.
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Aug. 9, 2008 - Family Picture
Here is one of the few pictures we have of our whole family. I don't count the hospital pictures. ;)
We had a delightful lunch at my mom's house this past Sunday and I made them all get together and be photgraphed. Why is it that no one wants to gather for pictures but then they all love to see pictures of themselves. I am finding it much harder to photograph my family now that we are at 5 kids.
Austin only looks at the camera twice a year and never in a group and the other kids tend to look off at some random bird in the background or in this case, Katie saw something on the ground she just needed to look at!
At least I have one picture to remember our family at this stage of their lives.
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Jul. 30, 2008 - How Grandma got here . . .
I thought I would share the novel way Grandma Joyce got here for her visit. My uncle is a great pilot and he must have a great friend, because his friend let him borrow his plane to fly Grandma up here.
They had an uneventful trip and the boys got a chance to climb up into the copilot seat before it began to storm. I even crawled up in there,skirt and all to see what a pilot sees. Lots of gadgets,lights and buttons! The boys were thrilled to have such a chance. The private part of the airport is so much more relaxed and the kids really had a chance to explore an airplane with out any metal detectors or long lines. Some time in the future when we can get the weather to cooperate, the kids will take a short ride in the skies.
Here are some of our pictures from yesterday.
The family one is missing Rachel, she was inside the building with my mom. My uncle is on the far left and my grandma is on the far right and my family is smack in the middle. :)
What a way to travel!
Austin
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Jul. 27, 2008 - My Persnickety, Ambitious Toddler . . .
"Rachel is a mess. " is becoming a common phrase at out home. She is almost 15 months and much more of a handful than her previous 2 siblings. Now Lily was a pest, of sorts, but not until she was 2 and some. Rachel wears me out and keeps us all on our toes, waiting for her next crusade.
Just this weekend she did the following:
- climbed out of her crib, completely unassisted, and knocked on her door for us to come get her
- bit my fingernail as I tried to retrieve the bubblegum Sam gave her (She loves gum!)
- danced on our kitchen table holding our small world globe
- threw all of her food to the floor, at every meal (She has to be the pickiest baby/toddler eater I have ever met)
- pulled Lily's hair because I was snuggling Lily not her
- screamed "Mommy!" all weekend long, even when she wanted Sam or Daddy
- sucked her thumb, held her lovey and laid her head on my shoulder as I put her to bed every night. I
her!
I always forget that those sweet newborn babes all grow up and move into this stage of life and it always catches me off guard. The good news, if you have a crazy toddler in your home, is that this too shall pass. I know that as she matures she will outgrow these antics and become more civilized. Then John and I will sit back on those quiet evenings and remember how much fun we had with her toddler sillyness.
Here are a few of my favorite pictures of Rachel these last few months.
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Jul. 18, 2008 - The things a fifth child gets to do . . .
Just to remind everyone, Sam, the base in this picture is almost 8 years old and Rachel, the top kid, is 14 months.
I'm not sure how Sam figured out that she would like to hang out on his shoulders or even how he got her to stay up there. She looks like a little bird, perched high up on a branch ready to fly away. :)
I do know that I would never have allowed my first or even second born child to perch on an 8 year old's shoulders, ever.
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Jul. 16, 2008 - Art Project for the Week
This week has been a "clean" art week. :)
The kids got a freebie stained glass art coloring book from their Mimi and all 4 of the big kids helped color. Austin showed the most passion in his coloring, Sam enjoyed coloring his until the neighbor came over, and the girls loved choosing the princess pictures. Rachel would have loved to eat color with the crayons too but Mommy just said no. :)
This is also the first time I have seen Lily show some desire to color in the lines and to color with purpose. You know how toddlers and preschoolers pay no attention to the dark black lines in the coloring books. Well Lily may be heading over to the other side. She is showing such maturity these days as well. She no longer dunks full toilet paper rolls in the toilet, paints the baby in pudding, pees on the floor at will, or gets in our bed in the middle of the night. OK, so she still climbs in our bed so she can snuggle up to her daddy's back . . . . every night.
Maybe next week we will get the paint back out or maybe a paper maché project. I do know that we will be exploring a whole new world using the new microscope I bought for our science curriculum.
Here is the one I bought.
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Jul. 14, 2008 - Blue Skies and a Fresh Breeze!
Those two aspects of our morning coerced us out of the house today! We headed to a new playground and brought along our trusty cooler.
The kids had a fabulous time climbing all the aparatus and sliding down the slides.
A wise one once said that I will not regret leaving behind the 6 loads of laundry, sink full of sour dishes, and a dusty floor in order to play spontaneously with my kids. I was busy making memories this morning. :)
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Jun. 30, 2008 - Rare Snuggles
My first and my latest.
The only problem is that kittens and babies grow up and demand their independence and autonomy. Rachel has begun this next stage and she doesn’t like to be cuddled or restrained in a hug for very long these days. She squirms and wiggles until she has her feet firmly planted on the ground. I don’t blame her, it is normal to want to explore, but 
It seems like everyday he has his feelings hurt when Rachel walks away fm him or struggles to get down from his hug. 
I wish I could capture more pictures like these, Austin at rest and content and Rachel snuggling sweetly. (She was bribed with Ritz crackers for this moment when
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Jun. 18, 2008 - Crawdad Critters
John, our two boys and a dear friend!
Our boys have been crawdad hunting several nights this week. Thankfully we have had a drop in temperatures and it is in the mid 80s and high 70s. Anyway, Austin and Sam love to get down on their knees right at the creek's edge and study the water. They have figured out how to "scare" the crawdad backwards into their bucket!
I have never actually seen a crawdad until this week, so when they brought me the first one to see I was mildly amused. It was the size of a minnow, tiny. They kept at it though and eventually caught close to 10, some of them several inches long! I was amazed at this point and the boys loved shocking mommy. I was making such a to do about thier size that two ladies walking past stopped to see as well. :)
I ended up taking lots of pictures of Rachel as she toddled around the walkway. She has been up and walking for two weeks now and she is so cute.
SAM
Sam was also patient with me and let me take several pictures of him. Austin was not so obliging and only let me take the very last one with his arms crossed over his chest. He has a hard time moving from one activity to another.
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May. 29, 2008 - I am researching booster seats and a new car seat
Here is what I have found so far.
This is a good article listing the merits of rear facing car seats.
Ok, Rachel, 17 lbs, is still in a rear facing infant seat and I will keep her in it until she is 20 lbs, then I will move her into this that I bought on Amazon.com today. It is rear facing for 35 lbs and front facing with a 5 point harness until 65 lbs, which for her will probably be when she is 15! I intend to keep her rear facing for several more months, since that is what they say is safer for young children. I ordered the Monet color pattern for her.
Lily is 3 and 31 lbs and is in a very old, 7 years old, front facing car seat. It has probably expired by now so I bought her a Graco booster seat. It is a forward facing, high back, booster seat that fits kids 3-10 years and 30-100 lbs. It also converts into a low booster if we need to later on down the road.
Katie and Sam are both shorter than the 4'9'' that is required by law to be in a seat without a booster so they both get new boosters. I have had them in low back boosters that are pretty old. Sam got this one, Katie's is a pink one called Talia and Lily's is a purple one with a fairy print.
Austin is fine without any boosters, but I will doublecheck the way he fits in the regular seat. He seems to be growing so fast these days. When John was 12 he was his full adult height of 6' 4"! So I may have a son who is taller than me in a few short months or years. Scary!
Here is how I put this entry together, I did a little research, see the 1st youtube clip, then I ordered my seats, did a little more research and found this youtube video. I went back to Amazon.com and caneled my order for Lily's booster seat and bought this instead. Please watch this video,it is very powerful and moving.
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May. 29, 2008 - Quiet Rest Time
It is my goal to have quiet rest time every afternoon from the beginning of Lily's nap around 1pm until 2:30pm. It doesn't always work that way but I really need that break. With five little ones always needing something and squabbling with each other, I really need the silence. These days, I don't want money or fame I want time and silence!
Today's rest time turned out better than most days, probably because we just started our book log. :)
I "caught" all 4 kids who were awake reading! They read to themselves or looked at books for over an hour of rest time today. I therefore feel rested and refreshed, ready to welcome John home.
Enjoy these pictures...
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May. 21, 2008 - Precious Playground Pictures
The kids had a blast at the local playground today. We played with our homeschool group for our end of year get together.
The boys ran around chasing squirrels and climbing all the apparatus while the girls busyed themselves making friends. Except for the two times I found Lily in the parking lot doing who knows what. Thank you Lord for watching over our children in the everyday stuff to.
We are home now and the little girls are napping and Austin must have been worn out because he fell asleep too. Katie and Sam are filling the kiddy pool up to play in the ice cold water.
It is refreshing to have a "normal" day like today.
Austin playing light sabers.
Katie in pink above and Lily in her Puggles shirt below.
Rachel
Ok, I don't know why but the picture of Sam on the swings won't upload. I may have hit my limit of MB for the month. That would be bad seeing as how I like to talk with pictures! I don't quite see a blog entry as complete without a photo of someone.
I got his picture uploaded!
Well, gotta go, Sam and Katie are still running the water hose outside and we are in a drought. :)
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May. 15, 2008 - Three little brown bears . . .
There are some days when I cherish having lots of children. (Yes, there are some days I would like to sell them to the circus! 
)
Tonight, my beloved had to give a mini seminar on Leeds certification after work hours so I had to hold down the fort. While I did dishes, I asked Sam to sit with Rachel so she would stop climbing into the dishwasher. Well, he decided to read bedtime stories to Rachel and Lily. I was able to sneak some pictures in without disturbing them. Rachel did see me (see her huge grin!) but kept sitting with Sam.
Sam is a great reader. Right after his 7th birthday,last summer, reading just clicked for him. We had been using the Hooked on Phonics box set and it worked for him. He still loves to be read to more than reading for himself but I imagine he will read his own books when he sees the need.
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May. 5, 2008 - Lily "reading"
Lily will be 3 next month. Isn't she just the sweetest representation of femininity you have ever seen! I was cooking supper tonight and I glanced over at her "reading" to her baby.
Someday I will share about Lily, how she is a treasured child to our family and how she is our living example of how we gave God ownership to everything in our lives.
Christine
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May. 3, 2008 - Sweet Little Baby Feet
I love baby feet!
They are so fresh and sweet. One day this week, it was clear and sunny and the "big" kids rescued an earthworm from a warm moist earthen patch of ground. Poor thing never knew what hit him. Anyway, my kids "saved" this creature and made him a new home complete with muddy water and a miniature walnut boat. He traveled in style.
Rachel and I watched from a clean distance and took pictures of their adventures. She apparently wasn't getting a satisfactory view because she clambored up on this dainty wire chair to see what was going on. The last picture of her toes is my favorite. Look carefully and you can see the kids in the background playing.
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Jul. 5, 2007 - Board games
Today my kids have been playing board games. They played Chutes and Ladders, Candyland, and Hi Ho Cherry O. My 4 year old dd did really good with her colors and counting and the 6 year old was a good teacher. He would get a little carried away though and would move her pieces for her. She lost interest quickly because of that and I had to remind him to let her play. I had forgotten how good those games are for early math skills and color recognition. If only the boys, 6 and 8, saw Language arts as that much fun.
I started reading a new book today. I'll write back more when I am done.
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Jul. 1, 2007 - Art museum versus the kids...
In the name of higher education we took our five kids, ages 8 and under, to the art museum. What an adventure! Nothing was broken or destroyed while we were there and I believe we even left people with a decent view of our family. We spent about 2 hours looking at each painting or sketch. I wish I could say the kids spent lots of time studying each painting but alas they were more excited about the sidewalk chalk fun outside.
The admission was free today and they hads lots of activities set up for the kids. They had sidewalk chalk all around the outside for free form drawing. The also had a live band with pretty good music. Inside the kids made quilt squares out of fabric and cardboard with glue. I enjoyed our visit and I would even take the kds back again. Next time I will create some kind of scavenger hunt where they can hunt down certain paintngs and check it off.
