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

How sad

Every time I hear this it brings tears to my eyes....

Contract!

We have a signed contract on a house!  Woohoo!!  Our next step is to get the inspection done.  We are just so excited at the thoughts of finally settling into a home and unpacking after 2 years :)  As things progress, we will post pictures of the new place.  It is a nice home on a beautiful 38 acre plot.  Oh, how we look forward to all the possibilities.....we are so giddy!!  The Lord is good!

Happy girl

8 weeks old

Updates

So much can change in just one week.  Our family has experienced such a great loss with the passing of hubby's dad.  We rejoice for him that he is now with his Savior and has a new body with no pain!  We shed tears for ourselves as we will miss him tremendously here on earth.  I could not have hoped for a better father-in-law and grandpa to our children.  There will be a huge void without him in our lives.  He was loved so very much!!
A friend of ours also lost their precious baby girl at 35 weeks in pregnancy.  I can not imagine the ache of empty arms that desire to rock their daughter.  Please keep our family and theirs in your prayers over the next weeks and months ahead.
We also have finally found a house and land that we are excited about and are putting in an offer.  We pray for the Lord's wisdom and guidance during the negotiation process and that if it is His will, we will have open doors through the entire process.
The kids are doing well, baby is growing and getting chunkier every day!  We thank God for His goodness to us and His love for us.

Two of my girls

6 weeks

Today

Tea party with big brother

My loves

5 weeks

Baby girl is now 5 weeks old.  She is growing and gaining and becoming more alert.  She loves to cuddle and is not happy when put in her bed.  She would much rather be in mommy's arms!  This makes doing things around the house a little bit harder when my hands are always full :)  She is starting to smile when she hears my voice....so cute!
I really need to take some videos as well.  Our almost 2yr old is becoming quite the little gal.  She is such a smart cookie...loves to 'chat'....has quite the vocabulary...loves to sing....and can be such a comedian.  She calls her siblings by name now and it is so sweet to hear.
Other than that, we patiently wait for the warmer weather to come so we can get out of the house more and enjoy some sunshine.  Today was freezing rain and snow....I'm ready for winter to be over!

and again...

So what have we been up to?  How about another round of the stomach bug!  What??????  I didn't know you could get it twice within weeks.  Our oldest daughter and myself have been bathroom buddies for a couple days....and again we're praying the rest of the family does not get it....again.  This is not the way I planned on losing my baby weight!

Baby girl is doing well and growing.  She just moved out of the newborn diapers into size 1 which tells me she is gaining!  She has been such a trooper with nursing.  She was such a great nurser at the hospital, then we came home and she had to be bottle formula fed while I was really sick, then I switched her to just nursing and she did wonderful.  She is starting to get into a sleep schedule which is nice.  We are slowly getting into a schedule around the house....slowly!!  I'm finding it a big adjustment going from 5 to 6.  I don't know if it is because we've had so much sickness lately or what....but it will come.  I'm just enjoying baby cuddles right now :)

Other than that....I don't have much to post about.  I haven't even taken pictures lately!  Need to get on that!

First tooth

Our boy lost his first tooth the other day.  It was quite funny....he was very nervous about how much it was going to hurt having it pulled out.  I told him we would wait till it got really wiggly and pull it then so it wont hurt as much.  Well, he goes off and starts wrestling with his big brother on the floor, ends up hitting himself in his mouth with his own hand, and out pops his tooth!  I like pulling teeth....but that works too :)

2 weeks old

Finally some pics over the past week

Here is our sweet baby girl!

01-28-14

02-01-14

02-02-14

02-04-14

02-04-14

02-05-14