My girls' first haircut

Oh how cute she looks!!

Updates

We finally closed on the house and it is officially ours!!!  Thank you Lord for your goodness to us!  It is so humbling to see how God blesses us continually and meets our needs, and how much more humbling when He grants us our desires as well!  We are not sure of our move in date yet.  The current owners have 30 days to move out.  We are continuing to pack here.  Our livingroom is becoming less and less of a 'living' area :)  The little ones like climbing on the boxes though.  We are hoping this weekend to really get into the garage and den to clean and repack.  Not looking forward to that at all.  It will be so nice to finally get moved in and unpacked after 2 1/2 years of most of our belongings collecting dust.

In other news, we came home the other day and almost jumped out of our skin.  We arrived home and opened the front screen door to see a long black snake curled up.  Our 6 yr old was the first to open the door and let out a scream!  I dislike snakes immensely!

Tonight I went over to friends house to pray with her, talk to her and hopefully encourage her.  She just lost her first precious baby to an ectopic pregnancy (baby attaches to the fallopian tube instead of the uterus).  She was rushed into surgery because her tube had ruptured.  Hubby and I are all too familiar with ectopic pregnancy (I've had one on each side) and miscarriage.   We have 6 children in heaven and 6 here on earth.  We thank the Lord that He is in control and that our friend is recovering and healing.  I know how much she desires to have children and I pray that in God's perfect timing He might see fit to give them their desire of children one day.  How thankful I am for my family that God has blessed me with!

Birthday picture

Finally got another birthday picture done a few months late.  Here is our 11 yr old.

Winner

Woohoo!  Look at what I won!  These look like great reads to help out this mama!!  It is an 8 book bundle containing the following:

(http://thecharactercorner.com/8-ebooks-bundle-giveaway-3/)
Learning to Treasure God’s Word – A Study of Psalm 119
Charts & Tips for Stress Free Planning & Scheduling
Training & Correcting the Heart With Scripture
Building Character Into Our Children
Character Trait Copywork
Dealing With a Difficult Child
Sibling Squabbles
Mirror Mirror on the Wall, Who’s the BEST Mom of All?
Looking forward to reading these!

Updates

Well, our closing date has come without us closing.  Looks like closing will be set for Monday now.  First, the owner had to go away for a conference today and tomorrow which moved the closing and the lender keeps asking for more paperwork before he gives the go-ahead to close.  As of today they have everything they need, so hopefully Monday we will all sit down and finally get this finished!!!  We are just anxious to finally be done with it all and call it OURS!  Packing is going well here at home.  I almost have all the kids clothes packed with just the summer clothes left out.  We have packed up all homeschooling materials, books, winter coats etc.  We are working on downsizing ALL the stuff in the garage.  We are throwing alot away and I have to repack much of our belongings out there because of some not-so-friendly critters that have left their filth behind on all the boxes.  Can I say how much I dislike mice!!!!
As for the kiddos....all are doing well.  Baby girl is a whopping 16 lbs for 3.5 months old.  She is just getting to the stage where she will giggle if you tickle her.  She loves to smile!  I can start to see her trying to roll over.  She hasn't done it but she is beginning to twist her body.  She is not too happy with tummy time.  She only lasts a few minutes before crying.
Our 2 yr old is such a little monkey.  She is so funny!  Her vocabulary is now starting to include phrases.....things like 'daddy's home', 'i want you',  'i'm scared' (vaccum!!)  'where's shoes?', 'want juice'.  She can hold a pencil well and colors on things she is not suppose to!   She is such a mimic too, constantly doing whatever big sister does.  She is buddies with her 4 yr old sister.
As for our 4 yr old, I still have not started alot of schooling with her yet.  She can write her alphabet and her name, she loves to draw and can do people quite well.  The other kiddos still have about a month and a half of school left.  We took all of Dec/Jan off at the end of my pregnancy which put us a little behind for the year.  Looks like we will finish in July.
Nothing else exciting right now.....

Yahoo!!!

Appraisal finally came through and now we just wait for our closing date to arrive!  Oh how excited we are.  We are so close....and so very ready to be in a home of our own!  We can't believe how God has provided for us with this home.  It is the type of set up we have always dreamed of and prayed about.  It is a 4 bedroom, 3 bath home that sits on 38 acres (most of which are cattle hills).  There are several acres of nice flat ground for our big garden, our chickens/ducks/guineas.  There is a pond and a wonderful long driveway for some good walking!!  Hubby and some of the kids went out there today to go around the property with the owner and they met one of the neighbors.  The inground pool was also opened today and they say it looks wonderful!!  We will not miss our little rental here, but are so very thankful how the Lord provided it for these past 2 1/2 years.  We will however miss our wonderful neighbors here.  We will keep you posted as things progress and post pictures when we finally move in!