Wisteria

 
 

Ahhh... I LOVE early Spring! Wisteria has to be among my favorite things! And for the first time in my life I had TONS of wisteria growing in my very own yard. While it has already come and gone, it was beautiful and fragrant while it lasted! I thank God for the little things in life...

Easter 2010

 

LOOK QUICK... they are all clean! My seven beautiful miracles! Days like this just make me smile! We had a wonderful day. They all went to Children's church and hunted eggs and had an Easter party. After church we went to Steve and Audra's house for lunch. Everyone behaved so well and we had an awesome time! And we STILL have candy left. No one can ever say my kids are deprived because we don't celebrate Halloween... I bet we will still have candy left over from Christmas, Valentine's, and Easter by the end of the year!
I love these kids <3 I am so blessed to be able to mother them daily!

Woooo Hoooo

 
 
 
 

How do you water the garden and occupy the kids at the same time? Simple. Just set the slip-n-slide up right by the garden and let them rip! I was able to get som much done that day! I hoed several rows and planted some replacement plants while they played! Then when my hard work was done and I was all dirty and sweaty... I joined in on their fun!!!

A Big Sister's love...

 
 
 
 

They like having a big sister, whether they admit it or not!

You could fly with those things....

 
 
 

One day when Ian comes to me and says... "Mama, my ears are too big." I'l say "Son, let me show you something..." This is what Ian does in his spare time haha. As Elijah was getting his Wolf rank at scouts and having his face painted, this is what Ian was doing!

Making rank...

 
 

Elijah has earned his Wolf rank this year, now we are on the path to becoming a bear!

Lick your elbow...

 
I get the question... "How do you EVER have time for yourself with so many kids?" Well, I have decided to share my secret.... "Everyone sit down right here... okay, you can get up and go play as soon as you lick your elbow!"

She's turing out to be a country girl after all...

 
 
This is Naomi and our goat Forrest. He is a little wild, but Naomi caught him and squeezed him, and loved him, and... he's just so cute

How do you get 'em clean out in th' country?

 
 
 
 

Well you just hose 'em down of course! How else? We're some of them there high class rednecks, we done went got us one of them outdoor showers!

Teaching them to work hard...

 
 
 

There are advantages and disadvantages to being the oldest! Les is teaching Naomi and Elijah to mow the yard! Some consider me a little old-fashioned, some even consider me a little harsh... but whatever it is, I believe children should be taught from a VERY young age to work hard and to do everything right the first time. I strongly believe in instilling the ethics of working hard into the hearts of my children. I can tolerate many things but laziness is not one of them! Naomi and Elijah have become a very good yard team. They work well together to clean up debris and taking turns with mowing. It just does my heart good to see them working together and taking part in caring for a home and family.

Mom's visit

 

My mom is looking good for all she's been through this year. She wanted one last visit with the kids before her bone marrow transplant followed by many months of hospital care. She's lost some weight and is sporting a wig, but other than that you wouldn't notice any diference in her... I wouldn't look at her and think "She's sick."
She had fun with the kids. They all thought her wig was interesting hehe :)
Please keep my Mama in your prayers as she travels on in this difficult journey. And remember... while donating blood is an awesome gift of life you can give... don't forget platelet and plasma donations as well. It is a different process, but for the donor works pretty much the same as just giving blood. People with Leukemia like my mom need PLATELETS not just whole blood donations. Give a Leukemia patient life.... DONATE PLATELETS!

Park full of kids

 
 
 
 

...and there all mine! When we leave the park it looks empty. The past 2 Wednesdays in a row we have went to play for an hour or two before church. I like the park for me and for them. They get to have fun and expend lots of energy making for good sleep later; and I get to sit down and relax watching them have fun. It is a win win situation. Last week they all managed to stay fairly clean. This week however was a different story. I took 6 dirty ragamuffins to church. We stayed LATE at church filling food pantry boxes, so by the time we got home they just had to go to bed dirty. I just could not justify waking 2 already sleeping boys and 4 dreary eyed others to bathe them at 10:30 at night. Oh well, boys are supposed to be dirty... right!?! As for Rachel... she didn't get as dirty as the boys anyway.

Zoo day with Friends

 
 
 
 

3 Adults 8 kids... not so bad at the zoo, right!?! It turned out to be a great day. I just love Melanie... she is my twin. We do so many things alike that it is scary. Now if she goes and somehow has 7 kids I don't know how we will go anywhere together.
On this day we spent several hours at the zoo. I think the kids had the most fun at the playground, except for watching the elephant eat oranges and onions... they thought that was pretty cool. Xander slugged a little boy in the face close-fisted at the playground because he was arguing with Ian. I of course had to get on to him and not let him see me laugh... but I thought it was funny that he felt the need to just step in and end the argument so abruptly and come to the defense of his older step-brother. They fight like brothers always do at home, but it is sweet/funny how they will defend one another to a stranger so quickly. Poor kids at the playground better watch out... they won't know what hit them when ALL the brothers and sisters come to the defense of one haha.

A day with their dad

 
 
 
 

Elijah, Ian, and Aiden get to see their dad frequently. He lives in the area but rents a room so they are not always able to spend the night with him. But he makes time for lots of day trips and activities. Recently he bought them a .22 rifle to share. The shooting range is a little pricey and also scary for Aiden, so I told Tom he could teach them to shoot in the back yard. They did great and listened well and the triplets sat nearby and watched. No one cried over the loud pops and everyone obeyed well about staying back. The boys enjoyed their time with their daddy... and I get another gun to add to the cabinet YAY!!! Tom was awful at being a husband for 10.5 years and wasn't even that great of a dad during that time... but he really makes an effort now to spend quality and quanity time with the boys. I am glad that my boys are blessed enough to now have a dad who is trying to be a dad and also a step-dad who loves them and cares for them as his own as well!