Some more pics of the kids

I have so many 'props' and new places to take pictures of the kids!  This is going to be fun!

5.5 months

11 yrs old

9 yrs old

6 yrs old

4 yrs old

2 yrs old

Pics of our girl

5 1/2 months old.....

Pictures finally!!

So I have a few moments to finally get some pictures posted.  These are some of the house and a cousin pic from this weekend.  We missed getting a cousin pic from the weekend before!!  We have such a beautiful view from our front porch!  

Front of house

Back of house

Swimming pool out back

View from front porch

Panoramic shot from our front porch

Happy birthday

Our oldest boy has turned 9!!  I can remember by 9th birthday so clearly.  I thought I was soooo 'grown up'.  Nine felt so mature!  His party will be this Saturday when we have some cousins, aunt/uncle, Nana and Grandma/Grandpa here.  We just said goodbye to my sister's family last weekend.  The kids had so much fun with their cousins during the week.  Can't wait for the next visit!!  Hope to post some pictures soon.  I haven't been able to get my photo software working but I hope to soon and will post pics of the property.  We are definitely loving it out here in the country!!
Well, happy birthday to our boy.  We love you so much!

Moving

The past couple weeks have been very busy moving into our new house.  I haven't had a chance to blog lately and I have pictures of the house and property that I would like to post.  I will get to it soon once I am able to unpack and get stuff organized around here.  Dad has painted almost the entire main floor, mom has been busy cleaning and organizing what things are in the house, and my brother-in-law finished our new staircase today.  Things are coming together!!  It is great to finally be done with the rental now and I look forward to when there aren't so many boxes staring at me!

Birthday videos

Going through some past videos and thought these were cute.  This is birthday's from January and April.  One doesn't have enough hot air, and the others anthem is "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to"

My littles

Here's my 2 littles....my chunky monkey and my spider-midget :)

Updates

Baby girl has found her thumb....and inserts it in her mouth....NOOOOO!  I am determined to break this before she forms a habit.  She takes the pacifier very nicely but when it falls out, she finds her thumb.  She also has mastered rolling over and now sleeps on her belly.














In other news, we have been packing, and packing, and packing!!  We can't even sit in the livingroom now.  Our couch is unseen at the moment and our recliners are almost entirely in the kitchen!  Good news is our garage is pretty much completed, so only the den left to repack.  I'm hoping that will go a lot faster.  We should take possession of the house hopefully on Monday.  Then it will be cleaning up over there.  I can't wait to get the camera out and show some pics of the area and all our new 'toys'.  Hubby will finally be the proud owner of a nice riding lawnmower!  I know he's excited about that.  The kids love the 'gator' we have which is similar to the pic below.  The previous owner took them for a ride in it and they had a ball!!  We will also have a tractor (similar to the pic below) which will be interesting to see hubby on....*biting my nails*.  We're hoping to have the owner back out to the property to take hubby for a ride and teach him the ropes of tractor driving.  The kids are going to love living in the country...and hubby and I are excited as well!

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!

Today's photos

3 months old already!

Catch up

These are late in coming.....but here are the birthday pics of our 6 yr old and 4 yr old.  Still have to catch up with 2 more birthdays!!

Today

My mini me

Exciting updates

   Our loan was approved and we are now onto the appraisal.  We are getting closer and closer to getting into our new home!!!  When everything is finalized, we will post pictures of the house and land.  It is so exciting and humbling to see God give us our 'desires' we have always wanted in a home/land.     We had an enjoyable weekend with family over the Easter holiday.  Here are some pics and some recent ones of our baby girl at 11 weeks old.

Visiting Grandpa's grave

Baby girl meeting her Great Grandparents

Baby girl met her Great Grandparents
a month ago

A blessed life

   So tomorrow.....tomorrow is the day I start to feel old!  Tomorrow I'm turning 40!  Despite the feeling of becoming 'old', I have so very much to be thankful for.
   The past several years God has grown me in my faith and understanding of His Word.  Oh how much more there is to learn and how exciting it has been for hubby and I as we search the scripture.  Now that the kids are getting older and understand more, we have been getting them deeper in scripture as well and it is exciting to watch them grow and learn.  Our prayer for all of our children is that the Lord will open their eyes and draw them to Himself, that they will have a deep, personal relationship with our God and Savior.
   I am so thankful for the family God has blessed me with.  I truly have a loving best friend in my husband, and enjoy every minute with him.  He is a Godly leader in our home and his love for me continues to bring me to God in thanksgiving for such a wonderful partner in life.  I also never thought I would have the privilege of raising 6 children.  Each one was prayed for and is such a blessing in our home.  Sometimes I am overwhelmed with the responsibility of guiding and teaching these precious ones, but it is only with God's strength that I accomplish any good as a mother.
   I continue to be amazed at how God continues to bless me despite my faults and failures.  The unconditional love He gives His children....especially me, always brings tears to my eyes.  I know how wretched I am and yet my God blesses me over and over.  Why He chose to love me and save me I will never know.  He pours His mercy on me daily.  He bathes me with His love!  
   Forty looks wonderful....even if I'm starting to feel old.

Look who's turning 2

Our girl is turning 2 tomorrow!  What a bundle of energy she is.  She is such a smart girl, loves to make us laugh, is our only thumb sucker so far, loves to snuggle, and has such a sweet smile.  She however does not like taking pictures!!  I took a bunch and these were the only 2 that turned out,  I also got a couple of the whole gang :)

10 weeks old and happy!

House updates

Not a whole lot new yet.  We are currently waiting on the underwriting for the loan to be finalized.  Then the appraisal will be done.  We had the inspection and the house is wonderful!!!  The owner was there during inspection and took hubby around and showed him a lot of neat 'extras' that we had no clue about.  He also wants us to come out and show us how to open the pool and get hubby out on a tractor.  They have certainly poured money into their home and kept it really nice.  I am already searching for how I would like the rooms painted and decorated :)    We have started going through our stuff here and purging items and repacking things.  We are all so very excited about moving.  We continue to pray that everything will go smoothly.

9 weeks old