Happy birthday!

Happy 6th birthday Rebecca!!
I can't believe that she is already six! I remember the day I went to the hospital to have her because my cousin Sara was there having her little girl(both our 3rd girl) too! Emma was born on the 27th and Rebecca was born on the 28th! We had a wonderful nurse and I remember the lights were low and dim and once I was dialated she came quick! I remember the nurse saying-'Ok don't push I have to get a doctor!' I also remember not having a name for her because I wanted Zoey and Nick didn't :) She was born the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday and I remember somebody bringing us fish sandwiches from McDonalds.
She was very excited for her birthday present...she got an American Girl doll Josephina( thanks to One of Nick's cousins who's daughters out grew their dolls we were blessed with 3 of the book dolls and 6 of the itty bitty babies plus a ton of extras!!) They are nice dolls but I personally can't justify the money.
I am blessed this day and everyday with this beautiful little lady that God has given to us!
Happy birthday!!

Oh Monday's.....

The beginning of the school week, the return to reality, the long wait until the next weekend, the return to order and schedule..... it really does have it's pro's and con's. I feel like I was able to accomplish very little this weekend for some odd reason but it was a good weekend!

Friday I woke up nauseous and sick. I'm not sure why but I ended the day with a fever, some chill's, body aches, and a good dose of remedies and oils and by Saturday morning I felt great :) We made a quick trip to Treasure Chest to drop off some donations and then off to the library for some new books. Jo made some friends....

Audrey explored...

and tried to make a few of her own new friends too! There was a little boy she kept giving her ball too :)

 I finished a couple of things around the house and Nick and Charlotte were in the garage welding and cutting stuff for the farm truck.

We made it to Mass at 4:00 and had an anniversary party for his cousin later that night.
Nick zipping up Audrey after Mass :)

Anne and Audrey playing with dad's hat while he tried on boots

Sunday was nice day of hanging out with dad and buying him new "good" boots.  These are the ones that he picked out(I like them too:)!

Charlotte was disappointed she didn't get a pair but they are more than I typically spend on kids shoes so she would have had to use her birthday money to buy them and she didn't want to.

We had an early supper, then visited with Grandma and Grandpa for a couple of hours and home to bed with the kids by 7:00!
Nick and I were able to sit down and watch the movie 'Courageous'. It was a great movie with an amazing message. Here is the trailer if you are interested~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=i9VT_NBIVfs If you haven't watched it, I highly recommend it! The acting had a few cheesy parts but the message was powerful. I will say that I cried more than once :)

Now I'm off to start school......

Have a blessed week!

The beginning of lent

It has been a busy week. We have been busy trying to de-clutter and start a new chore list. I love it! We are still tweaking and working out the bugs but it has been a much better week!

We have also started a new way of discipline so to speak, every time the kids are misbehaving or doing something that they aren't suppose to be doing, they get a mark by their name. The mark means they have to be in bed 5 minutes earlier than there bedtime(which is 7:30). We will see if this helps, it's a work in  progress.

Lent has begun and we have(or should I say "I") decided that there will be no TV before 7:00. We don't watch TV during the day but the kids have a tendency to turn the TV on when I have to feed or put the baby to bed, or in the morning before I get up. It just seems like it causes more problems then it is worth. The girls were not happy about it but I am hoping and praying that it helps.

We had a vet appointment for Jack today.

He had to get his rabies booster and we found out that he is 130 pounds!! He is 'overweight" and the vet would like to see him loose 20-30 pounds. We are switching his food and we will try to get him to be more active. It looks like Charlotte will be taking him for a few more walks :) He and Sadie are also no longer afraid to get in the car. I came back outside to find this...

 I had to laugh!

On a lighter note, I was blessed with a fun morning of bowling with the home school group. The girls had a blast!!

Sunday's ....

I love Sunday's.

I love looking at this chubby little cloth diaper butt!

'Do you want a drink of water?'

Since we decided to go to Mass at 10:00, Audrey had time to take a quick morning nap and this is how we found her... :) to cute!

We had a busy day doing some odd jobs around the house and then taking the girls out for their free birthday meals at Hardees!

Hope you all had a blessed and wonderful Sunday!

Wonderfully busy day

We had our usual chaos around here but with a better note.

After taking a walk yesterday with the kids and my sister.

Then taking the kids to see all the cool(but seriously overpriced) campers at the camper show in town. We had an easy bedtime and finally some down time for Nick and I to just sit, relax and watch some TV. It was sooo nice.

Today there was no school but the girls all had some overdue lessons to catch up on so they worked on that while I got lunch and super in the crock and got everything ready to go so that we could visit with my other sister and her kids for a couple of hours. The kids had a blast playing and we talked.

Then we rushed home for nap time and I got to sit and talk (almost) completely uninterrupted with a like-minded friend about homeschooling, chiropractics, doulas, midwifes, oils, herbs, homeopathy and natural living for a little over 2 hours! Lots of new information and fun discussion, thanks Jennifer!

As for my afternoon, there was a little fighting, some tears but overall a good afternoon. The girls finished up(and helped each other finish up) their school work, cleaned the kitchen and living room up and are now quietly playing with play dough while mommy reads blogs and blogs herself.

All that I really have left for today is to put my order in at Sam's Club for the click n' pull and get the shopping list made....oh and I guess fold about 4 loads of laundry and diapers that are patiently waiting for me on the couch.....

My morning blessing was the beautiful sun and snow which I forgot to snap a picture of and a delicious smoothie that I was able to share with my hubby before he left for work!

One of those days...

It has been one of those days at our house or should I say one of those weeks. You know the ones were you feel like you never stop going but yet nothing ever seems to get done?? I am finally sleeping through the night after getting Audrey to sleep through the night by cutting out those 2-3 middle of the night feedings but I still feel like there just are not enough hours in the day.

To top off the frustration of feeling run ragged, I have 3 schoolagers who are constantly whinning about doing school or there chores or whatever there sister happens to be doing at the moment. I feel like I am in need of some serious organization or scheduling or something! I am not sure what I need but sanity would be nice : )

I hate the end of the day chaos that seems to occur here. Nick works long hours and isn't always here for bedtime(which is 7-7:30). I have considered leaving the kids up but then it seems like by the time we get the kids down, we are exausted and just roll into bed. I don't know what I going to do forsure but I found a few ideas and am restarting some old ideas of disciplining and scheduling chores. Hopefully something works out soon because today I feel like I am loosing my mind.....but then again this usually happens towards the end of the week :) Thanks for reading and I am thanking God for all those little blessing throughout the day that make me realize that throught the insanity I still have the best job in the whole world as a wife and a mother .... ;)

p.s one of the links I found is www.doughmain.com ~ we will see if it helps!

Morning blessing

I am blessed for little girls with their own fashion sense(apparently its summer and nobody told me:)

And also for the jungle jumper that keeps Audrey entertained and out of trouble when we are trying to clean up!

Morning blessing

I was blessed upon waking with a kiss goodbye and when I woke up a beautiful card from my husband on our anniversary. I love him more now than I ever have. I am truly blessed!

I am also blessed by a little girl who turned 4 today...Happy birthday Jo!! We love you and thank God for blessing our lives with you on this special day:)

Valentines day fun!

Some of our projects for St Valentine's Day- thanks to Jamie for most of the ideas:)

Morning blessing

Happy St. Valentine's Day! I am blessed with red velvet pancakes that I made for breakfast and a girl who did all the dishes even if it wasn't fair(that smile was not there earlier:)

Morning blessing

I am blessed by the little ones in my life:)

God I offer thee this day
for all I shall think and do and say
Uniting it with what was done
On earth by Jesus Christ Your Son.

This is the morning blessing my grandma taught me when I was about 6 or 7 and I love it!
Have a blessed day:)

Homeopathic HCG

Well as of Friday I have officially lost 31 lbs! I know not many people read my blog and I know that I don't blog very often but I am proud of myself and kind of wanted to say it out loud, so to speak. I started the Homeopathic HCG diet on November 29, 2011 and have now done 2 rounds and gone through the maintenance. I have not been at this weight for about 7 or 8 years. I feel great! I still have another 25-30 lbs I would like to loose but I am happy with the progress so far. Thanks for reading this and letting me say it out loud:)

Making butter

A friend of mine sent me a text last week saying she could get me a case (12-1 pt containers)organic heavy whipping cream for only $7. I thought okay that's a steal of a deal, so I took 4 cases and needless to say we have been making lots and lot and lots of butter! The kids have been shaking it, mixing it and squeezing it. We still have 1-1/2 cases left to make and the freezer is getting pretty full of butter. We have made butter with our raw milk before but this whipping cream makes butter really quick. We have also been saving the buttermilk and making some yummy fresh bread. They sure taste delicious together:)

Sorry the pictures are so shakey but I couldn't get them to stop:)

Library day

On Saturday I took the girls to the library because Charlotte had to do a research paper on the Holocaust. It was a fun outing even in the fridgid weather because it has been so long since we have been there. Audrey had fun exploring the train table and other fun toys with Jo and Rebecca following closely behind. Charlotte and Anne found books for themselves and of course ones they thought the other girls would enjoy as well. Each of the girls picked out 1-2 books and Charlotte had an additional 5-6 for her research paper. I was excited to see that they now have ebooks that you can check out on your Kindle or Nook! I just got a Kindle Fire for Christmas and an super excited to check it out:)