Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

If you have a little girl who loves to play dress up, then you must, I repeat you must check out this giveaway. I can't even begin to imagine how much time and work went into the design and creation of this gorgeous dress. Do make sure you stop by Grosgrain and her beautiful giveaway.

Attention all Coffee Lovers

Check out this blog to enter to win some free coffee. I think they are a new company selling many different types and flavors of coffee. I checked out their store, and the variety is amazing. Hope you stop by and check out their site.

Shenandoah Costume GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Shenandoah Costume GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Lately my girls have been into playing dress up. Check out this great costume and enter to win.

Too Quick to Judge

BEWARE THIS IS LONG AND A BIT DISGUSTING

This week, the Lord has been teaching me multiple lessons. I don't think I could even begin to list the number of things I have been learning. However, I must say the biggest lesson I am learning is that sometimes even when I don't realize it I am much too quick to judge.

Those of you who are on facebook and have noticed my status this week would know we currently have an infestation of mice. Now I will be the first to say that I think mice are cute -- when they are outside and far away from destroying anything I own. However, when they appear inside the house I think they are one of the most disgusting things on earth -- even worse then a stinky diaper. Probably at the beginning of the summer I began to hear mice in the walls. I told JA, but whenever I said something -- they stopped. The result = my husband did not believe me, primarily because there were no signs of them in the house. That is until Sunday night. Sunday night I sat down to feed Ezekiel and saw one scurry under the couch. Monday morning I was sitting at the kitchen table and watch one scurry across the living room and down the stairs. Monday afternoon I was heading upstairs when one runs down the stairs and hides under the washing machine. Tuesday night Kara spots one upstairs running into her bedroom. Tuesday night I feel one brush against my back as I sat on the couch to watch a movie. Tuesday night we spot one under our bathroom sink. Do you get the picture -- We have a major infestation and the mice are not afraid of us!!!

Out come the traps in full force. Within the first twenty-four hours of the traps being out we catch six mice. I don't think I've ever even heard of catching that many in one day. Believe it or not the mice have not gotten into the kitchen or affected any of the food. In addition to the mice, the weather has been so nice that the kids have been playing outside a lot this week. The problem is they forget to close the kitchen door. Result = flies, flies, and more flies.

To top this off, yesterday afternoon I was standing in my kitchen looking at the dishes from the day that needed to be washed. I could not help but step outside of my situation and realize that if I was standing in anyone else's home seeing mice, surrounded by flies, and a pile of dishes I would consider them to be the most unsanitary and rather disgusting home. But if you looked at the rest of my house -- clean floors, laundry caught up, food put away, relatively clean bathrooms I began to realize that I cannot judge others. Anyone could walk into my home and at that moment walk out never wanting to return -- but that is not typical of our home, especially the mice :(

Next time I am tempted to judge someone by their home or appearance, I hope I will remember my experience this week and realize that sometimes people fall a little behind in cleaning and that the sneaky pests can get out of control before they even realize there is a problem.

Just to let you know, we have now put fly paper outside in our garage and the kids are not letting in nearly as many flies as they were before. We have stopped up all visible outside entrances into the house, and will hopefully be decreasing the mouse population rapidly. After the mice are gone we WILL be shampooing all carpets and deep cleaning the house.

But on a side note, I have to show you the picture of a mouse JA caught last night in our house. The poor thing didn't even get to taste his demise as he died reaching out for his cheese.

VS.

Ever wonder what would happen if we treated our Bible like we treat
our cell phone?

What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?
What if we flipped through it several time a day?
What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it?
What if we used it to receive messages from the text?
What if we treated it like we couldn't live without it?
What if we gave it to kids as gifts?
What if we used it when we traveled?
What if we used it in case of emergency?

This is something to make you go....hmm...where is my Bible?

Oh, and one more thing.
Unlike our cell phone, we don't have to worry about our Bible being
disconnected because Jesus already paid the bill.

Makes you stop and think 'where are my priorities? And no dropped calls!

Click here for Homeschool Update

Brotherly Love

My special Blessings before we left for church on Sunday.

One thing I have to tell you about my kids is that despite how frequently they fight, they each have a lot of love to share and give. Psalms says "Behold how good and how pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity. This seems very true of my two special boys. Andy absolutely adores his little brother. Every morning, if Ezekiel is in bed with us, Andy (Andy tends to wake up before everyone) will come over and start saying baby and pointing at Ezekiel. If JA is already up and Ezekiel and I are still in bed, Andy will crawl up and lay down and JA's side of the bed. He will then commence to try and have Ezekiel hold his hand (regardless of the fact that Ezekiel is usually asleep).

When Ezekiel is laying on his activity gym, Andy loves to go over and lay beside him. He will try to entertain Ezekiel or simply smother him with kisses. I love just watching the two of them interact.
Note: I do make sure not to leave them alone because for the few moments I stepped away this morning I return to find Andy trying to wrestle his baby brother -- I am looking forward to being able to watch them play together when Ezekiel is older.

Andy was more than happy to pose for these pictures with his baby brother.

First Trip to the Dentist

Wednesday Kara and Lydia had their very first dentist appointment. I must say I was very nervous about how this trip would go. JA stayed home with both boys, and the girls and I traveled the thirty minutes to go to the dentist. I was sure that both girls would have a fit the minute the dentist told them to open their mouths. I am so thankful to report that I was completely wrong. Both girls did great, and I think that reading books to them all week about going to the dentist helped to prepare them for the experience. The book I liked most about going to the dentist was Dora the Explorer Show Me Your Smile.

First to hop into the chair was Kara. Kara chose to bring her favorite Kitty cat with her.
Dr. Potter told her that he was going to count kitty cat's teeth but since her mouth was
sewn shut he wasn't able to. So he counted Kara's teeth instead. Counting her teeth
while he was looking for cavities kept her from being afraid of the hook.
The middle picture is the Hygienist showing Kara how her special toothbrush will tickle her
teeth -- she had the toothbrush tickle Kara's finger. By the time Kara had the fluoride
treatment in the last picture she was completely at ease and letting them work with her mouth.

Lydia was very eager to hop into the chair after Kara was all done. I was able to get a picture of the dentist "counting' her teeth. You can see Lydia holding onto her puppy in the first picture.
Both girls chose the bubble gum flavor toothpaste to have their teeth cleaned with.
Lydia was proud to be able to smile during the fluoride treatment. And I was surprised neither girl balked at the vacuum thing stuck in their mouth.

Since both girls had to wait 30 minutes before eating and drinking, I drove them to the park to play for a little bit before I took them out for a special dinner. Here are my girls showing you their lovely smiles.

For dinner we stopped at the "Chubby Pickle" a little diner in Phillipsburg. I had to get their picture with the huge pickle on the front. Until Lydia saw her french fries and hamburger without pickles, she kept saying "I don't want pickles" -- I guess she thought pickles was all this diner served :)

Apples, Apples, and More Apples

Last week was a wonderful blessing for our family. On Monday, we decided to take the kids apple picking. I have to admit I was very tentative about taking them because I figured there would be no way we could keep track of them in an apple orchard. Now I am thankful we decided to take them. We picked five pecks of apples -- that comes to be 1 and 1/4 bushels of apples. And the kids each had a fabulous time.
The kids stopping to eat lunch (banana muffins)

Lydia and Andy preparing to explore the Hay Maze

Kara and Lydia in the middle of the Hay maze by the Scarecrow

Lydia on her way out of the maze

Picking apples

Kara looking for the perfect apple

Andy actually needed two hands to pick this apple

JA topping off the last bag of apples

Ezekiel slept through the entire experience until right before we left.

Ezekiel and me in the middle of the hay maze

Because the apples had been damaged by hail and
were a little wormy, we had to cut them up and turn them into
applesauce and apple butter.
We were able to get about 30 quarts of applesauce, and 24 jelly jars of
apple butter all for the grand price of $10

Andy wanted to try his hand at making applesauce.

With our trip to the Apple Orchard, we spent a lot of time in school last week talking about apples for school. Making the applesauce and apple butter was also a part of our schooling last week. Below our the pictures the kids drew of their apple orchard experience. Notice the black stroller in the bottom right hand corner of Kara's picture. She is really beginning to discover a purpose in her drawing instead of simply scribbling.

Ezekiel's Baby Shower

I feel so blessed to be a part of a wonderful church family. Not only did they bring me a couple of meals after Ezekiel's birth, but they also planned a wonderful baby shower for us. I took Kara and Ezekiel with me to the shower, and Kara became the official photographer.

We received some adorable items including three packages of diapers about six packages of baby wipes; some lotion, baby oil, and baby wash; baby socks, some bibs; an adorable photo album; some creative memories scrapbook and baby stickers; and a beautiful picture frame to hang on the boys wall.

If you would like to see more pictures from the shower click here.

Women's Retreat

We have already had a very busy a full month at our house. September 5-7, I went with my friend Lynette to a Women's Retreat held at the Quaker Ridge Campground in Colorado. We had a wonderful time. The main room where we listened to the speaker had an amazing view of Pike's Peak. Amy Smith, a mother of six, spoke at the retreat on the Disciplines of a Godly Woman. My heart was convicted in so many different areas. I am so thankful for a wonderful husband who stayed with my three older kids so I could be refreshed from the Word at this retreat. I'm also thankful for the church members who were willing to sit with my kids in church so I could attend. The above picture is of my friend Lynette, Ezekiel, and me standing on the porch with another amazing view of Pike's Peak.

Between sessions we had some free time. I went hiking with a few of the ladies. I admit I would not normally go hiking three weeks after giving birth, but since I only had this one opportunity to get out and enjoy God's beautiful creation, I felt I needed to take hold of this opportunity. We did have a beautiful hike, and I am afraid that I did slow the women down a bit. I carried Ezekiel in the sling, and did have a picture of us hiking on the trail, but it must not have taken since I can't find it on my camera :(.

Some of the women took the opportunity to do the ropes course. It appeared to be quite strenuous requiring quiet a bit of upper body strength to be able to balance oneself and walk on the ropes. Thankfully they were harnessed to a lead rope so they weren't able to fall.







Ezekiel had a wonderful time being the only baby at the retreat. I think I only needed to hold him if he was wanting to eat :) I also was challenged in the area of learning to accept help gracefully. I don't know why I always feel like I need to do things myself. It felt very strange having women volunteer to go change Ezekiel's diaper, carry my plate and cup up to the window for me, and many other tasks I could easily perform.

I do have to give props to my husband for being such a wonderful father and pastor. I called him Sunday morning before church just to see if he needed help finding anything. Lydia had woken up sick Sunday morning. She threw up three times before Sunday School. I tried calling a couple of people to see if they could come and stay with her during the morning service, but I was unable to get in contact with anyone. I can't tell you enough how faithful a God we serve and how He LOVES to answer our prayers. JA and I, and the women at the retreat were praying that Lydia would be able to make it through the service without getting sick (since JA was the pastor, there was no way he could stay home with a sick child). My kids were the only ones in Sunday School, so we didn't need to worry about exposing other children to Lydia's illness. She made it through Sunday School wonderfully. During the morning service she had some dry heaves, but no vomit (Sorry, I know it may be TMI). Less then fifteen minutes after JA and the kids got home, Lydia was throwing up again. I can only say it is by the Grace of God that they made it through church. We were able to get Faith to babysit for us Sunday night, so Lydia was able to stay home in bed.

Lynette and I made it safely home at about 10:00 Sunday night. Another answer to prayer while I was at the retreat was the gift of an infant carseat. The carseat we had been using was a five-year-old three point harness (no longer meeting safety standards). While at the retreat one of the ladies came up to me and asked if there were any baby boy items I needed since they were in the process of getting rid of their baby items. I asked her if she was getting rid of an infant carseat -- and she was! We stopped by her home in Colorado Springs on our way home.

I am excited about the truths that we studied during this retreat, and I am excited to see how I can continuously apply them to my life.

One of Amy's key sayings for the week was -- "Start practicing to be the kind of older woman you want to be." I'm not going to wake up one day and be this godly older woman ready to teach the younger women. I need to begin practicing to be a godly older woman now.

I have much more to blog about, but that will have to wait until another day.

Table Cloth Skirt and Dinner Party Top GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Table Cloth Skirt and Dinner Party Top GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Homeschooling Begins

Monday we began homeschooling Kara and Lydia. If you are interested in following as I journal our year of homeschooling please check out my homeschool blog. I just put up a post with pictures of our first three days of school.

Ezekiel's Birth Story

I know several of you have been waiting to hear the story of Ezekiel's birth, so if this is not something you are interested in, then please skip this post.

First of all, based on my last prenatal exam showing I was only 1 cm and barely any thinning (the same as the previous week), I resigned myself to having to wait at least one more week before the birth of my baby. I left the doctor's office knowing that JA would be walking me all over town for the next week. However, I was wrong. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were very normal days for us. We did decide Friday night to walk the kids to the park (only three blocks from our house). So we walked there and then ended up walking/running home in a torrential downpour -- I didn't run but JA and the kids did). We cleaned up the kids and put them to bed. JA ran out to the restaurant and brought me home a Taco Salad -- you know they say Mexican food is helpful for inducing labor.

Well, Friday night I had the same cramping in my stomach that I had had for the past month -- nothing, I mean absolutely nothing was different. We stayed up and watched the Olympics and went to bed sometime shortly after midnight. At about 1:50 I woke up with what I thought were terrible gas pains in my stomach. My thoughts were thank you taco salad for waking me up :) At 2:00 I woke JA up and asked him to rub my lower back because the gas pains were really bad. He would rub out the pain, and then I began to notice that about every few minutes the pain was back. He did this for about 20 minutes before I decided that I was not having gas pains but that I was having contractions about five minutes apart. I told him to go back to sleep and I was going downstairs because I couldn't sleep with the pain.

I went down and caught up on reading blogs and facebook. Then I decided I should probably time my contractions. I pulled up a contraction timer and discovered the contractions were actually 3 1/2 minutes apart and lasting for a full minute. I then called the hospital (it was about 2:40) just to let them know I was in labor. I was very surprised by the nurses response. I told her I was in labor with my fourth child, the contractions were 3-4 minutes apart, lasting for a minute, and that my water had not yet broken. At first she said, well come on in when they get closer and the pain a bit . . . Wait, did you say this was your fourth child -- I think you should come in right away.

Okay those of you reading this are probably saying "of course you should get yourself to the hospital." Please understand I have never had a labor where I did not progress past 4 cm on my own. They've always had to induce me with pitosin and break my water. So, my plan was to try to stay at home at least until my water broke -- I figured this would reduce my chances of needing a C-Section (which seems to be very popular around here).

Well, getting back to my conversation with the nurse. I told her it would be at least half an hour before I could make it to the hospital because I needed to call a babysitter. I finished on the phone, went upstairs to finish packing my suitcase, woke JA up and told him I was going to take a shower before going to the hospital -- could he please finish loading the dishwasher for me (I couldn't stand the thought of having dishes on the counter when my babysitter showed up). After I got out of the shower I called the babysitter, and we ended up arriving at the hospital at 3:45 -- an hour after I finished talking with the nurse.

I walked into the ER, and instead of being placed in triage and having my dilation checked they immediately admitted me and called the doctor. I was really surprised because I thought they would at least want to verify I was in labor before admitting me. They put a needle in my hand so it would be ready for extra fluids when the doctor requested them. Finally After I had been there for at least 30 - 45 minutes they checked me. I was just praying that I would at least be at 3 or 4 cm. I was shocked when she said I was already over five. When the doctor showed up, he checked me and I had already progressed to six. The anesthesiologist showed up and gave me a spinal shot for pain killer -- I admire all of you who can labor without pain meds, but early in the morning with almost no sleep I knew I would not have had the energy to go through labor and deliver (especially since I figured it would still be at least another four hours of labor). Well, about 5:50 (about an hour after the shot) the doctor came back in to check me and said I was ready to push -- What! How could I be ready already. I was just having a fun time chatting with the ER nurses.

Well, at 6:25 JA and I were shocked when Ezekiel literally shot out about five minutes after my water broke -- hey it was a good thing I didn't stay at home until then :). However, the shock wasn't in the fact that the doctor almost dropped him because he came out so fast, but when the doctor said we have a boy. We were told when we had the ultrasound at 24 weeks that the baby was a girl.

Anyways, I had the shortest labor I've ever had feeling my very first contraction right before 2:00 and delivering Ezekiel 4 1/2 hours later. We have decided that next time I am nine months pregnant we are going to stay very close to a hospital the last two weeks of my pregnancy. I had a very very quick recovery since I didn't require any stitches. I can even say that the after pains are gone (which for my last two children they lasted at least 1-2 months after birth). I feel great and have had more energy. Also, Ezekiel is already sleeping 6-7 hours at night.

Here are the pictures of Ezekiel with his bilirubin blanket. I am so thankful he no longer needs it.

Works of God Monday

Currently my heart is overwhelmed with the many blessings that God has given to us over the past several years that we have been married. However, I must say that the biggest Work of God in our lives is the birth of four very healthy children. While each of our children have faced small health issues shortly after being born, all of their problems were very minor and easily fixed.

Kara Struggled with respiratory problems for her first 2 1/2 years.

Lydia struggled with severe constipation for her first six months
until I finally resorted to putting her on soy formula.

Andy was born with a cleft lip that was repaired
when he was four months old.
Ezekiel was born with a cephalahematoma that should clear up in the next three months. As a result he has had to use a bili blanket to help lower his bilirubin levels.

Other praises include winning a toddler backpack from Carabella's. JA and I decided to use it as part of Andy's birthday present in a couple of months.

Another tremendous blessing is how the Lord has given me such fantastic friends here. One of my good friends watched my kids so JA and I could enjoy a candlelight dinner while I was in the hospital. However, she also decided to clean my house while she was here. So I had the opportunity to come home to a clean house :) I've also had several friends who have provided dinners for our family. It has certainly been a blessing to not have to rack my brain about what to fix for dinner.