Rain, Rain, Go Away!

We had a little storm move through this evening early. Some thunder, a little lighting, hard rain for a few minutes, and strong winds. The kids were out in the backyard playing. They came running in the house yelling, "Momma, a storm's coming!" We've had a few tornadoes in the past 4 years and have had to take shelter in our laundry room on more than one occasion, so the kids are a little skittish where storms are concerned. When they got in the house, I told Luke to run take a shower real quick. He got to our bathroom, undressed and then was peeking around the corner of the kitchen saying, "but Momma, you told us not to take a shower when it's lightning!" They were so filthy, they had to take a shower, so I ran in there and got all three in and out one at a time in about 5 minutes. FAST showers!

Emma is officially weening. My milk just hasn't been where it needs to be and she's not gaining weight like she needs to. That happened to Sara and we don't want Emma to lose as much weight as Sara did, so we're weening her now. Sara stopped gaining weight from 4-6 months, so Emma has made it longer than Sara did, but I fed Hope for a whole year, so I was kinda expecting to do that with Emma. The only thing we can think is that I'm just to stressed and it's affecting my milk production. I don't get to just sit and bond with Emma when I'm feeding her. It's always, "Hope stop!", "Sara! Get Hope!" :) I'm a little sad, but it will be easier with bottles because now Sara can help feed her too. She's still not eating solid food very well, but at least she's opening her mouth for a few bites now!

Spring Fever!

It has officially hit! I'm ready for spring! I am one who loves the seasons. By the end of the summer, I'm ready for jeans and sweaters, but by the end of winter, I am soooooo ready for capris and flip flops! Sara is, too. That girl loooooves flip flops! It was almost 70 today, so I got my taste of spring and I can't wait!

The girls and I went to the dermatologist today for a follow up appointment. She said we are on the right road. We are going to keep doing what we're doing. I was so proud of the girls. They were so well behaved. Times like today remind me what GREAT kids I have.

After the dr., we went to Krispy Kreme for donuts. Sara had gotten a coupon for a free donut at her Valentine's party, so we went to use it. The girls had fun watching the donuts go down the conveyor belt.

Then we came home and went for a walk. It was so nice to get outside. Even Emma loved being outside. Lance and I are so blessed that all of our kids love to be outside!

The girls on our walk

We went back home to eat lunch and then we had naptime. Luke got home after the girls got up from their nap and we went on another walk. This one was a long one. About 1 1/2 miles. Almost too long! Some good friends of ours live behind our subdivision and the kids wanted to walk to see them. We have to cross a field to do it. I was going to use the jogger stroller, but a tire was flat. So we trudged on. Not the smartest thing I've ever done. But the kids got to see something really neat on our walk. We have a lot of geese in this area. There is a retaining pond behind our subdivision that they like to be in. In the field we crossed, a flock of them were walking around. The kids were able to get really close to them. A little closer than I wanted them to! They thought it was the coolest thing. And when they did fly off, it was right beside us and they were amazed!

Luke chasing the geese

The kids and the geese

Faddis Jamboree

I had a little bit of a leftover migraine today. I took some medicine to knock it out last night when I felt it coming on, and most of the day I felt ok, but not great. By the afternoon, I was ready to get out of the house though. I missed Bible Study today because of Sara's fever the past couple of days and I was looking forward to that. So in order to get out for a few minutes, I took Luke to basketball practice tonight. Lance normally does it, but I needed to go to the grocery store after, so I took him. It was fun. He did good. Even made 3 baskets! He did a much better job at paying attention to the coach and what was going on around him!

Then after dinner, we had an impromptu jamboree in the living room. It was Hope and Luke's idea. Luke got his guitar and Hope had her Daddy get his guitar. Sara had a maraca, and Hope was banging pots from their kitchen! (I joined in later on spoons!) It was a memory in the making!

The Faddises and all their musical talent!

Don't ask me how, but this is what Emma was doing during the "music"!

Tomorrow is going to be a day of laundry. With a follow up dermatologist appointment for Sara thrown in. I am so far behind on laundry. Most of it is washed, but I have tons to fold and put up! If you've ever wondered what laundry for a family of 6 looks like when it hasn't been put up, here ya go....!

Poor Emma. Her room is the dumping ground!

Sara's Turn

Since Sara couldn't go to MDO because of her fever, she and I had a Momma/daughter day! She was still running a low grade fever this morning, but she feels fine, so we made a day of it. She had some money in her piggy bank and wanted to go buy a My Little Pony at Wal-Mart. So that's what we did! She carried her purse and wallet and paid for it all by herself. She felt so big! Then we went to the DMV to get Lance's tags renewed. (had to get at least one thing accomplished today!) After that is was off to Olive Garden for lunch. She picked. She said she wanted salad and breadsticks. Yummy! We had gotten her some outfits for spring/summer at Wal-Mart, so we went to Old Navy to see what they had. She was so excited that she got to pick her clothes instead of "you buying them for me" to quote her! It amazes me how young that kids start having opinions about things like what they wear. Girls more so than boys.

My Sweet Girl!

After Old Navy, we went to pick Hope up at MDO, and then it was home for naptime. When Luke got home, they all had a lot of fun playing. No TV this afternoon, and they all ran around the house playing hide n seek and duck, duck, goose. It was fun to see them enjoy each other so much.

Unfortunately, Sara still has a fever, so we won't be going to Bible Study tomorrow. But, on the other hand, staying home for the morning does have it's appeal!

Here's Emma during the melee at the house. She can't wait to join them!

Will The Sickness Never End?!?!

We had another good day today. Lance and I didn't go to church this morning. He had some work that he had to do at his office and Emma isn't feeling great. She's been pretty fussy the past couple nights, which isn't normal for her. So she and I stayed home this morning and just hung out together! We left for Prairie Grove right before lunch to get the kids. We spent the afternoon in P.G. The kids have so much fun when they are there. And the weather was warm enough that we could play outside with coats on. Their cousins Clayton and Evan came over for a while and everyone had fun together.

We picked up a pizza from one of our favorite restaurants (Gusano's) on the way home. Sara had fallen asleep in the car so when we got home, she was a little groggy. She sat in her Daddy's lap to eat her pizza, but didn't eat much and went to lay on the couch. Lance said she felt warm so I got the thermometer and sure enough, fever. 101.1 Arghhh! So here we go again! Hopefully it won't last. She'll be home with me tomorrow while Hope goes to MDO. But on a positive note...her skin is healing!!! Thank you, Lord! We go back to the dermatologist Wed. I can't wait to see what Cheryl has to say. We are sooooo happy!

Dance, Dance, Dance!

I have the coolest husband in the world! Let me give you the backstory...We watch Dancing With the Stars every season. We love watching it as a family. At my brother's wedding this past summer, Sara was having her Daddy hold her in dance moves like she had seen on the show. It was so cute. Anyway, Lance and I love the show. He tried to get me ballroom dancing lessons for my birthday this year, but couldn't get it together in time. So for Christmas, Jeremy and Leah got Lance and I 4 ballroom dancing lessons. We were soooo excited. Today was our first lesson. Lance's parents took the kids after Luke's Upward basketball game today which was at 8:00 (woo-hoo!) so we had the whole day and night to do what we wanted to do!

Now how many husbands will go ballroom dancing with their wives. Not only go, but WANT to go and have fun while doing it?!?! Leah and Jeremy got us 4 lessons, but I think we will do more after the 4 are over. We had soooo much fun! Watch out Cheryl Burke and Mark Ballas!

Ahhhh, the Weekend!

I can tell you this is going to be a GREAT weekend. First of all, it HAS to be better than last weekend. Second of all, my in-laws are taking all three "big" kids tomorrow morning and keeping them until Sunday. We are going to go down for lunch after church Sun. and then bring them back that afternoon. Third, Lance isn't on-call!!!!! Tonight alone has the whole of last weekend beat already! The kids have missed Lance. He came home for dinner and then let the girls crawl all over him, held Emma, helped Luke with Wii Lego Batman and then had a lightsaber fight before bed. It's been a great night!

Luke rode the bus home again today. I think we've hit a winner! He is loving it and I am loving not having to get all the girls loaded to go get him every afternoon! I seriously don't know why I haven't been doing this all year! He got a "green card" today at school, so he was very happy. He has trouble at school being quiet and staying in his seat. But I can't get on to him too much. We all know where he got that from!!! We've implemented a new system at home for him. I have two jars. One with a smiley face and one with a sad face. I put $5 of nickels into each jar. Every time I catch him doing somthing positive or if he obeys immediately or has a good attitude, he gets to move a nickel from the sad face to the smiley face jar. On the other hand, when he doesn't obey, etc. he moves a nickel from the happy jar to the sad jar. When all nickels are in the happy jar, he has $10 to go buy a toy. I just started it yesterday, but it's working great so far. $ speaks to him!

Sara's skin is doing so much better!!! Praise the Lord! I can't tell you how many prayers have been said for that little girl. I'm hopeful that we've finally figured out what's wrong. Her hands are responding to the ringworm medicine and the rest of her body has calmed down since her hands have started clearing up. We are still praying that she is healed.

Hope is chugging right along! Still won't go to bed. I've been up 3 times already. This last time, Sara was asleep in their bed, and Hope had the light on sitting in bed reading books. That girl will be the death of me!

And it looks like Emma doesn't have a milk allergy after all. She still won't eat much solid food, but she is at least not spitting it out and tongue thrusting anymore. She had oatmeal with bananas this morning and it stayed down. No vomiting! Yea!

Go Faddis Family!

Prayer Works!

Last night was hell on earth. Hope took a long nap yesterday and had a hard time going to sleep last night. Nothing new about that. She has a hard time going to bed every night. Just tonight, Lance and I have gotten up 7 times to put her back in bed. Last night at 10:30 when she was up for the umpteenth time, we let her sit in Lance's lap for a little while. She kept tossing and turning in Lance's lap so he took her to our bedroom and layed in bed with her and turned on a movie. That's when the crying started. Then the screaming started. At 3:00 it ended. We dosed her with several medicines and this morning we saw that her eardrum had burst. She had not been complaining at all of her ear hurting, but she had an ear infection so bad that it burst her ear drum. We felt so badly for her. I've never had a child hurt so much. It was very hard for Lance and I.

So, I'm going on 3 hours of sleep today. I am emotionally, spiritually, and physically exhausted. And you would think that today of all days I would have yelled at the kids more today and felt horrible today. BUT I have had so many friends and family members praying for me today and I have felt it. My friend Sarah watched Hope and Emma for me today while I took Sara to a dermatology appointment. We have some hope for her eczema. She thinks that she has ringworm on her hands which is severely inflamed on her hands. We have thought that it was part of her eczema. Long and short, she thinks that if we treat it, her eczema will heal.

My wonderful husband sent me an email telling me he was praying for me today and others have and God has answered their prayers for me. I can't explain it all in here, but I'm writing it so I'll have a marker that I can look back to and remember how He answers prayer.

Today was a big day in our house. Luke rode the bus home from school. We only live 1 mile from school, so I really didn't think he would be able to. He has wanted to ride it since kindergarten, but I haven't wanted him to. I don't like the idea of him being on that big thing and we live so close to the school, I didn't see the point. But I thought about it yesterday and it will free me up from having to rush home after picking the girls up from MDO to get Hope home in time for a nap before having to leave to pick Luke up. He loved it and I have to admit, so did I. It so was so nice today to not have to stress about picking him up and he only gets home 10 min later than he does when I pick him up. He's the second stop. The first one being the street behind us. And he's 100 ft from our front door when they drop him off. He was so proud of himself today!

Getting off the bus (I'm standing at my front door)

My big boy so proud of himself!

Burdens

What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer! O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged; take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care? Precious Savior, still our refuge, take it to the Lord in prayer. Do your friends despise, forsake you? Take it to the Lord in prayer! In His arms He’ll take and shield you; you will find a solace there.

Blessed Savior, Thou hast promised Thou wilt all our burdens bear May we ever, Lord, be bringing all to Thee in earnest prayer. Soon in glory bright unclouded there will be no need for prayer Rapture, praise and endless worship will be our sweet portion there.

I go to Women's Bible Study at my church on Tues. mornings. It is such a blessing to me. I get a break from my kids for a couple of hours (which every mom will tell you is a needed thing!), I get to connect with my friends, and I get challenged each and every week from God's Word.

God got a hold of me today through this song. It's an old hymn. There is such TRUTH in the old hymns. How many times do I carry unnecessary burdens, forfeit the peace available to me, and bear pain that I don't have to because I neglect or just flat refuse to pray and cast my cares upon my God. This really struck me today, because I'm in a perpetual state of trying to carry all my burdens on my own and then I screw up royally. I yell at my kids and struggle with all the demands of being a mom and wife all because I do not rest in Him and let Him carry my burdens. Will I ever learn? I sure hope so. It would make my life so much easier!

Lunch Date with Luke!

Here's the boy of the hour. On his date with his momma. He had fun. We ran down to Fayetteville before we went to lunch to return a pair of shoes of his. While we were there, we went ahead and bought the kids swimsuits. We like for the kids to have swimsuits that have swim shirts. We spend a lot of time at the pool and go to White Water in Branson a couple times in the summer. They are great for protecting against sunburns. Target always has really cute ones for the girls, so when I saw them out already, I snagged them If there is one thing I've learned since having kids, it's that when you see something you like, get it then. It won't actually be there when you need it. I've missed too many things waiting until it as actually the season to wear them to buy them. I will never understand why retailers put out things 3 months before the season.

Anyway, after we got the stuff at Target, we headed back to Rogers and to Colton's for Luke's date with Momma. He loved Colton's. He thought it was the coolest thing that you could throw the peanut shells on the floor. We don't eat peanuts or peanut butter in the house because Lance has a peanut allergy. So, Luke ate some of the peanuts, but they weren't his favorite. He never has developed a taste for them. He did enjoy throwing my peanut shells on the floor! :)He really loved being with me today. All of the kids like their one on one time with Lance and I. And we like it too. Hope and I have had our times on Sunday afternoons, Luke and I have had our date, now it's Sara's turn. I think we will have to plan a pedicure together sometime soon. We've done that once before and she loved it! And now it's getting close flip flop weather. I can't wait to get one with her. She loved getting nail art!

Once quick note about Emma. Lance's mom got her a tummy mat for Christmas. We broke it out today to try it. She LOVED it! It was so cute. She stayed on it about 20 minutes or longer. She just laughed and laughed. Here's one picture of her on it. I waited too long to get the camera and she was done with holding her head up all the way, but it's a cute face nonetheless!

OK, just one more thing! I actually had posted this blog and then remembered something Hope did today and I want to remember it. It was so precious and out of character for her. Something I would expect from Sara, but not necessarily Hope. Hope does anything her big sister does, but it's always Sara who initiates helping me clean the house. Well, today, I was sitting on the couch and I saw Hope at the kitchen table getting something off of it. I yelled her name and told her to leave stuff alone on the table and she said, "no, Momma, I cleanin up." I then realized she had some trash in her hand and she was putting it in the trash can. Then I heard her opening the fridge and something crashed to the floor. Once again I hollered her name as I was running to kitchen. When I got there I started getting on to her about getting stuff out of the fridge when I realized again that she was helping. She had gotten a tupperware container that had leftover spaghetti in it off of the stove top and was putting it in the fridge. She was standing there looking sad and I felt so bad for yelling at her and scaring her. I thanked her for helping and she proceeded to help unload the dishwasher and sweep the floor. It was so sweet! I love that girl!

TGIAM!

Thank goodness it's almost Monday! Ever hear that one? This weekend hasn't been the greatest and now it's almost over! Woo Hoo! The kids and I had a good day. Church is always good. And the kids love C3 choir on Sunday afternoons. Luke told me when I picked him up that he tried out for a speaking part in their spring program. I am so proud of him! I hope he gets one. He will be so excited!

Hope, Emma and I went to Wal Mart while Luke and Sara were in choir. I am loving my times with her on Sunday afternoons. When I only have 2 of them, it's so much easier. I let her walk instead of ride in the cart. Sometimes she has pushed the cart. It's hysterical! She thinks she's so big. Tonight she was funny. She was running ahead of me and kept turning back to tell me, "follow me, Momma!"

I'm looking forward to tomorrow. The girls have MDO, but Luke is out for teacher in-service. He was awarded a free meal at Colton's for making all A honor roll the first semester. We are going to have a lunch date! He is excited. All of the kids love to have one on one time with Lance and I when they can. It's special for all of us.

Maybe Next Year!

OK, so today wasn't the best Valentine's Day I've ever had. How did it go wrong? Let me count the ways. First of all, Lance was gone all day. Seriously, all day. I got the kids up and had to be at basketball pictures for Luke at 8:30. His game wasn't until 10:00. Of all days for Lance to be on call, this was not the ideal one. Thanks goodness the church he plays at has a concession stand and they sell breakfast. We all sat down between pictures and game and had chocolate pancakes. Sounds sweet doesn't it? Well, try corralling 4 kids in a basketball game atmosphere when they are bored. Woo Hoo! Thankfully Lance was able to make it to the last half of the game. Relief for a while.

We went home and let the kids open their presents. That was the funnest part of the day. They loved their presents. (I guess that's kinda a no brainer, huh?) We got Luke and Sara digital cameras. They are cheap ones, but they have view finders and they loved them. Hope got Madagascar 2.

Lance was only able to stay home for a few minutes and then it was back to work. That's when the day got worse for me. I hate yelling at my kids, and I do it too much. Today was one of those days. I was disappointed that the day didn't go the way I had planned. I bought Valentines plates and cups for the kids to eat and drink with today. Had the house decorated and then blew it. Part of the problem is that I was exhausted because I was up late decorating the house and the kids didn't seem to care. I didn't get a nap because the 2 oldest were in our room and making all kinds of noise and I had to keep getting up from the couch to get on to them. I'm not happy to say that it was not my finest hour today. And I hate that.

I'm so thankful that God forgives me when I fail Him and my family. I needed His forgiveness today.

We did end on a fun note. I made a heart shaped brownie and let the kids eat it on the floor in the living room while we watched Madagascar 2. I LOVE watching my kids dancing around to "Move It, Move It!"

Like I said, maybe next year will be better!

Hope checking out her new movie

Sara can't believe she got a real camera!

Luke reading all about his new camera!

Valentine's Dinner with Valentine's cups and plates

(Oh and the flowers are from the love of my life!)

Sugar High!

Tomorrow is actually Valentine's Day, but the sugar overload has officially begun! Today was Luke's Valentine's party at school. So much fun celebrating Valentine's Day with 24 1st graders! They were hyped up! I got a sugar high just looking at the cookies on their plates. So many parents brought cookies that we didn't even put them all out! Plus, they got candy from each other. It was insane. And then Lance's mom sent them a Valentine in the mail with 2 boxes of heart shaped candy. Oh, and the girls' Valentines parties were yesterday, so they have a ton of candy, too! Holy Moly!

It was fun being with Luke today. That is one of the reasons I wanted to be a stay at home mom. I have only missed one school party since Luke started school. And that was last year's Valentine's party when we were on our way back from Thailand. I love being there for all the kids activities. My parents came to all my basketball games when I was in school and it meant so much for them to be there. I want my kids to feel that special. That they know they are the most important thing to us!

Me and Luke at the party

Luke loving his party

Before I went to the party this afternoon, I was doing laundry all morning while the girls played. They had fun together today. TV wasn't on all morning and they just ran around the house laughing and playing dress up. One thing I wanted to remember them doing absolutely cracked me up. They had a Marty toy from McDonald's from the movie Madagascar. Sara would take it and hide it and then come tell Hope, "I hid it in..." and then they would run through the house yelling, "Maaaaaarrrtyyy!" and after a few minutes of yelling for him, they would run to where Sara had hidden him and start screaming and laughing for joy because they "found" him. It was so cute. They are the sweetest things!

Strep, Ughhh!

So you can tell from the title of this blog, I have strep. It is the first time I've ever been diagnosed with it. I don't have a fever, just a very sore throat. My glands are swollen and it hurts to swallow, but I don't feel on death's doorstep like I've heard strep does to people. Lance has been concerned that I might have it since Hope had it a few weeks ago. He wanted me to come to his office to get a swab for strep. Sure enough, it was positive! He called me in some antibiotics and he had one of his partners call him in some. (we have been kissing a lot lately!) So, that means Hope was on 10 days of antibiotics 2 weeks ago; Emma started 10 days of antibiotics last week because Hope had been kissing her and it's hard to see the strep in babies; Sara is on 10 days of antibiotics because she has scratched her eczema spots so much they got infected. That makes 5 out of the 6 of us on antibiotics. Yea! (catch the sarcasm?)

Just to touch on Sara for a minute. She suffers from eczema. I can't tell you how many people tell me, "oh, I have that" or "my child had that" or "have you tried..." I sometimes just want to look at them and say, "you have no idea what you're talking about!" I don't. I know they mean well, and I appreciate their concern, but they really have no idea how severe hers is. It is the worst case Lance has ever seen. The poor child has wounds all over her body and she scratches so much that she has scratches and scabs all over her body, too. We have tried everything. Seriously, everything. She has been on 3 different antihistamines, 2 different topical steroids, benadryl, and we coat her body with eucerin cream every night. My heart breaks for her. She is such a trooper. She never complains and I can't even imagine how it hurts her. She has never know any different. It is much worse right now than it has ever been. We have had her tested for allergies and she has none. We have an appointment with a friend of Lance's who is a dermatologist. She saw her once before when she was two, but we want her opinion to see if there is something we're not doing. We are realizing that the only thing we can do for her is pray. Not that we haven't been doing that, but it is the only thing that is going to heal her. We are even considering asking our pastor to anoint her with oil and lay hands on her and pray. It is a horrible thing that she is going through.

Speaking of Sara, today she said the funniest thing. She is my girly girl. She is a princess. She loves dresses, jewelry and makeup. Today all three girls and I were at Wal-Mart. I was looking at some pajama tops and we passed the nighties. It's very close to Valentine's Day and there were a lot of them! When we passed one, Sara pointed at it and said, "Momma, I like that dress with the booby covers. It's pretty." I about died laughing right there in the pj section! It was hysterical. Then she got embarrassed because she thought I was laughing at her. I had to explain that I was just laughing because it wasn't a dress, but it was pretty. She's going to laugh when she's older and I tell her what she thought about nighties when she was 4!

The Sweet Moments in Life

Kid's are so funny. All 3 of our oldest kids have very distinct personalities. One day recently, I asked Lance to describe our kids in one word. (I had already thought of mine) For Luke, Lance said sensitive and I said sweet. For Sara, "momma," and for Hope, "wild!" Hope is definitely our wild child. She's the one you have to know where she's at at all times. She has such a funny personality, but she also into everything, and destructive. (tearing pages in books, coloring on things she's not supposed to, climbing on the kitchen cabinet to get into the candy)

But this morning, she was so sweet. We had a storm go through last night and Sara slept on the floor of our room. (without us knowing! Lance stepped on her when he got up this morning!) After he stepped on her, she got in bed with me. After I got Luke off to school, I got back in bed to cuddle with her since she was still asleep. Hope came in a little bit later. She got up in bed and snuggled up with me. She's got a cough and started coughing enough that it started waking up Sara. When she saw that Sara was waking up, she started talking to me. The first thing she did was look at me and say, "Momma, you're the best momma ever." I almost cried, it was so sweet. Then she looked at Sara and said, "Sara, you're the best sister ever." It is those moments that make parenting the best thing in the world!

House Hunting

Today after dropping the girl's off at MDO and taking Emma to Lance's office for a weight check (1lb. in 1 week!), I met my parents and brother to look at houses. My parents are moving here this summer!!!! As long as they can sell their house. They do have an offer and are waiting to for the buyer's financing to get settled. It is a solid offer, so they anticipate no problems, but it is taking longer than they expected.

They have been up a couple times now to look for houses. They have found 3 possibilities in a subdivision 5 minutes from our house. We are so excited! It will be so much fun and so much help having them so close. My mom asked me recently why I wanted them to move here. The fact is, I will always have a shopping buddy, Lance will have someone to work out on our land with, and they will get to go to all the kids' activities. I am so excited that they are going to be able to be around for the everyday happenings of our life. And the kids can't wait!

Yippeeee!!!!

What a GREAT day!

Today has been busy, but good. It started early with Luke's Upward basketball game. There was a little misunderstanding about the time, so as I was gathering the girls to load in the car at 7:55, Lance called me from the gym to say his game was at 9:00, not 8:00. Ooops! So we went to breakfast at a local restaurant and the kids loved it. Then it was back to the gym for the game. Which, I'm proud to say, Luke did a great job and kept his head in the game!

Then we came home and it was off to go hiking. We haven't been able to go hiking since Emma was born and it is something we all like to do. Being outdoors is what our family likes most; whether it's hiking, camping, riding horses, whatever as long as we're outside! We planned on going hiking at a trail by Beaver Lake, but it was closed because of all the downed trees from the ice storm. So we went to a small lake in Rogers and hiked around the road that goes around the lake. Lance and I were a little disappointed at first because it's not really hiking to us, but the kids loved it and we did have a lot of fun. We saw muscle shells which intrigued Luke, a Bald Eagle (which I had never seen that close), geese, trout, and deer tracks (which Luke identified much to his father's delight!). The kids all picked up walking sticks and had so much fun with them. They want to go back soon. Then we came back to the house, took showers and headed to the church to drop the kids off for social night. The kids played there while we joined our Sunday School class for bowling. Then Lance and I went out to eat, picked up the kids, came back home, got the kids in bed and are now watching a movie. It's been a GREAT day!

The "big kids" hiking with their sticks

Emma LOVED hiking!

TGIF

I so love Fridays when Lance isn't on call for the weekend. Luke gets up easily on Fridays because he knows it's his last day of school, the girls have been to MDO the day before, so they have expended some energy, and I know that Lance will be home and we have him without interuption for a couple of days! Woo Hoo!

I've had some minor issues with my Tahoe lately. I had it in the shop Monday and had to take it back today to have 2 new tires put on it. I was originally planning on taking it in yesterday while the girls were at MDO, but decided I didn't want to spend both of my MDO days this week at the car shop! So, crazy me, I decided to go today after getting Luke from school. That is how much I treasure my MDO days, it was worth not giving both of them up and taking 4 kids to a car dealership instead! They actually did great. We drove through Sonic on the way and everyone got the snack they wanted. That occupied them for a while. And the guy at the dealership was so nice and rushed the guys in the shop to get it done quickly since I had all the kids with me. They were all very well behaved. And thank goodness the dealership had some toys they could play with.

Hope was so sweet while we were there. She needed to go to the bathroom, so I left Luke and Sara watching Emma in the waiting room while I took Hope to the bathroom. (now mind you, we know the owners of the dealership and there were adults in the waiting room who kept an eye on the kids!) Anyway, we passed the mens bathroom and Hope saw the potty and started to go into it. I told her that was the boys bathroom, not the girls. As we were going into the girls' and she was getting situated, she questioned me about the other bathroom being the boys' bathroom. I assured her it was and then she said, "I like boys. Lukie is my favorite boy." It was so sweet. She loves her big brother!

Another Busy Day

The day started out as sweet as can be. I've had my migraine all day again today, but not as severely as last night. Because I took some medicine for it last night that I can't take while I'm breastfeeding, I had to "pump & dump" this morning. So I had Sara give Emma a bottle of frozen breast milk. It was the sweetest thing. Sara is such a little momma. She has given a bottle to her once before. She is in heaven when she gets to hold Emma, much less give her a bottle. When Emma was only a few days old, my friend Sarah came and got Hope one day so I could settle in. Luke was at school. I had a really rough time with neck and back pain after her birth and was basically flat on the couch for the first week we were home, so I needed some help. Sara stayed because she is such a helper for me. I let her hold Emma and she held her for an hour on the couch and watched TV. If you had told me that I would let a 3 year old hold a newborn by herself on a couch and walk away from her (to put a load of laundry in) I would have told you you were crazy, but Sara was amazing. Anyway, she was in heaven again today getting to give Emma a bottle and did such a great job. Hope sat beside her and thought she was big stuff, too!

Sara giving Emma her bottle (and Hope helping!)

My girls!

Speaking of my friend Sarah, she is amazing. She told me yesterday that she wanted to take some of the kids for me on Thursdays. Lance works at our church's free clinic every other Thursday night which leaves me home with the kids. I totally don't mind and am actually very proud of him for doing it. But it does get hard being at home without him. Sarah took the two big girls this afternoon and brought them back at bed time. She's going to take Luke next week and alternate who she takes each week. She is my kids' second mom. They love her and her family and the Tutts love my kids. It is such a blessing to have them as friends.

Today was the 100th day of school for Luke. Evidently that is a new school holiday for schools. Last year and this year they have had projects involving 100 items and also have gotten to dress as a 1oo year old person. I forgot to take a picture of him this morning, but he looked cute. He had on dress pants that were too short, white socks, black dress shoes, a dress shirt and a sear sucker blazer, wore glasses, and we put powder in his hair to make it grey. He was adorable. He had fun, but said everyone kept calling him Clark Kent instead of an old man. He got kinda upset about it, because he was an old man! It was cute.

And finally, my little wild child (Hope) cracked me up again last night. She has been taking antibiotics for the past 10 days because of her strep. She's been a "big" girl and gotten her medicine out of the refrigerator every night and and the syringe out of the drawer. She went to do it again tonight and I had to tell her that she was done with it. She kept arguing with me that she needed her medicine and I kept explaining to her that she didn't have to take it anymore. She then frowned and looked at me and said, "You're being mean!" I said, "no, I'm not." and she said "Yes, you are, I'm going to spank you." and proceeded to spank me on the bottom with her hand. She was being funny and not serious or she would have been in trouble! She is a hoot!

I HATE Migraines

Life is not fun when I have a migraine. That is the understatement of the year. I woke up with a headache today. I knew it would eventually turn into a migraine. I was doing pretty good with Advil until I drove the kids to church tonight. The driving and motion of all the moving cars is what triggered it into a full blown migraine. Ughhh. The kids had AWANAS tonight and I hate for them to miss it. So we went on. I just laid down on a couch at church until they were done and my dear friend Cheri helped me get all of them to the car and, miracle of all miracles, Lance was home when we got there. He is on call tonight and was thinking he would have to go to the hospital. Thankfully he didn't. I've taken some migraine medicine and hopefully it will go away tonight while I sleep.

I forgot last night about something Hope said that I wanted to put down so I wouldn't forget it. It was hilarious! Lance and I were wrestling with the kids before bathtime. They LOVE doing that. It is something Lance started doing with Luke when he was a baby and the girls love it just as much as he does. When we were done, we told the kids it was time for a bath. None of them were happy, but Hope was extremely upset. Lance got on to her and told her to go to her room. She was in full blown fit when she looked at him and said, and I quote, "YOU'RE POOPY!" I about died laughing. I had to turn and cover my face so she wouldn't see me. Lance got her to her room and gently (ha ha) explained to her that she was not to ever call Momma or Daddy names. I asked him later where in the world that came from and he said it was the worse thing she could think of! It was so funny! The things that go through a kids mind!

Internet Finally!

OK, so I was doing really good at blogging every night since I started this whole thing. We were so blessed only to have lost power for a few hours during the ice storm, but we lost our cable and internet on Friday and just got it back today. It has been hard. Not necessarily because of the cable. We have just watched some videos, played games and I've organized some closets that have needed it for sooooo long! But not having the internet has killed me! I got on Facebook a few months ago and I check it a few times a day. I keep up with my friends and "talk" to people I haven't seen in while. I've missed it! And I missed blogging! Go figure! Who knew I would get into this whole blogging thing? I have been waiting for the internet to be back on so I could write down some things that have happened the past few days.

The first day without cable, we had fun cleaning the house. It was hysterical. The kids were cleaning their rooms and I turned it into a contest. You want to know what the prize was for whoever got their room cleaned the fastest? Getting to scrub the toilet! It was hysterical! Luke won the race. He was so excited. We went to Lance and mine's bathroom and I helped him scrub the toilet. He loved it! Sara did a good job on her room so her second place prize was to help clean the mirror in the kids' bathroom. While we were cleaning the mirror, she said, "cleaning the bathroom is fun!" I told her I was going to remind her that she said that when she is 15!

Lance bought us the movie "Enchanted" during the cable outage. The kids and I were watching it yesterday after Luke got home from school. There is a scene in the movie where Giselle sings out a window in a NY apartment and rats, pigeons, and cockroaches come in a help her clean the apartment. I wish I could have taken a picture of Hope's face. It was hysterical. She was sucking her thumb and frowning at the TV. We call it the Kettron face. Kettron was Lance's grandfather. It is a funny face. She looked at the TV with that face and said "Ewwww Momma! Bugs!" I laughed so hard. She was so confused as to why bugs were helping clean the apartment. You had to be there to really appreciate it, but I wanted to remember it so I'm blogging it.

Emma is continuing to be such a sweet little blessing. I have wondered several times why God gave me three girls. I always thought I'd be a mom to boys. I was such a tom-boy growing up, I played athletics, I'm competitive, I'm blunt, I have always had guys friends. Totally thought I'd have boys. But God thought differently. I have loved having my girls. I'm so thankful for them. And today I felt God tell me why I have three girls. I am currently in a Beth Moore Bible study at church. We are doing her new study "Esther." It is amazing. I love Beth Moore. I haven't ever done one of her studies that I haven't loved. Today we were watching a video of her teaching on mean girls. She was talking about what defines a mean girl (someone who has no regard for other's feelings, who dresses provocatively, who has no respect for herself) and what is at the root of why a mean girl is a mean girl. She stated that meanness perceives a threat. We have to learn to identify the threat. That is what keeps us from being a "mean girl." Insecurity is at the heart of it all. While she was talking about it, I felt God tell me that this is why I have three girls; to raise them in a way that they are examples to the world of what a Godly woman is. How she treats people, family, her husband and how a girl is to dress that is hip, but honoring to the Lord. It is hard to put down in words, and really the main reason I am even writing this is for my own sake. So that I can remember it and not forget what God was telling me. I am humbled to be the mother of 3 girls who will look to me to model what a Godly woman is. It scares me. I want to live up to the calling. And I know that there is no way I will be able to do that without relying on God to guide me.