Bloom Where You Are Planted!!!

Bloom where you are planted!!! I will be honest and tell all of you that I have decided to kick and scream and make sure that I am not planted in this new earth that God has called us to. I have made sure that I have made it miserable and desolate and dry and just down right unlivable for the  past 2 years. Boy do I wish I could change things, but I can't. The Lord opened my eyes about a month ago to the beauty that He has blessed me with.

This is a view of Castle Rock from the famous Castle Rock that my children love to hike. Each day I am learning to thank God for something beautiful in my new community. Wow it really isn't hard to be a happy joyful person when you learn to be thankful.

 

My first Senior

 Where has the time gone? I was told when I had Emily to enjoy every moment with this child because before you know that have grown up right before your eyes. Well that is so true. I still remember holding her in the hospital and literally starring at her for hours. My husband and I could not take our eyes off of her. I look at her now and think when did my little Emily grow up. I couldn't be more pleased with the you lady she has become. She has a servant's heart and loves to help where and whenever she is needed. As I type this she is in Nebraska with her sister helping a new mommy for 3 weeks. This is Emily's senior year of high school and a big mile stone for all of us. I started homeschooling her 2 weeks after I had baby # 4 and to tell the truth I did not know if it would work. We are first generation homeschoolers so we had no model to follow, but we decided to dive in headfirst and see what would happen. So thankful we took that leap of faith. We have had so many great experience's and many not so great experience's but it has all been worth it. I love the relationship that I have with this child we really are best friends. I remember when she was getting close to high school I thought to myself can I really do this? The Lord answered us with a great speaker who talked at a homeschool conference that we had attended the summer before her freshman year. He talked about discipling our children and training them up in the way of the Lord morning, noon, and night. The last thing he encouraged all of us in the session to do was no longer say that we would take our homeschooling year by year but that we would begin to tell ourselves and others that we would homeschool until Jesus comes. Well Marc and I have done that. we have never ever questioned our decision again. We know all of our children will be home schooled until the end. Emily I love you and we are going to have a great senior year.

7 Weeks

7 Weeks ago today we were not so patiently waiting for our precious Annaliese to arrive. My water broke on Easter Sunday at 7 in the evening. We just assumed we would have a baby in a few hours, but that did not happen. Monday morning we decided to walk and try some herbs and tinctures to get my labour going. After a few hours of walking I was exhausted and needed some sleep. I layed down for about and hour and then was awakened by a very strong contraction. Things were finally beginning to happen 20 hours after my water broke. I still felt in my heart that something was not right, it was just not like any of my other labours. I had my midwife check me and she said that the baby was so high she couldn't even feel her head. I just felt like she was not positioned right and I still don't know if that was the case. I don't know what time I started pushing but after 45 minutes I knew something was not right and so did the midwife. She checked me again and found that I had a huge cervical lip that was very swollen. She tried to get the swelling down with ice and I had to breath through contractions with out pushing. I did this for about 20 minutes but was beginning to get delirious. This is when I decided I needed to go to the hospital. The drive only took 15 minutes but it seemed like and eternity. By the time I got checked in, examined and comfortable, we found out that there was meconium and that I was only a 9. Now we had to wait and pray that my body and the baby would cooperate for me to have a vaginal birth. It was 9:30 p.m. and the doctor was not happy that it had been over 24 hours since my water broke, but she was willing to wait and let me try to do this vaginally. We waited and baby was not cooperating very well so we prayed. The Lord granted our request and at 1:01 A.m. Annaliese was born. She was not breathing and she was completely limp I could not believe this was happening. Again the Lord was gracious and I heard them say we have a heart rate of 100, then a couple of seconds later I heard that most glorious sound that every mother longs to hear, her first CRY. What a beautiful sound that was. With in 5 minutes my daughter was laid on my chest and she was beautiful and healthy. She weighed 10 lbs and was 21 inches long. She did have a broken clavicle but that was nothing I was just thankful to be holding her. What a mighty God we serve.

Annaliese Joy her first day of life.

4 weeks

Here is Annaliese when she is 4 weeks old. She is now 6 weeks so I am just a few weeks behind on posting. We love her and are so grateful we have been blessed with her.

Easter 2013

                                                         Easter 2013

Annaliese

We are enjoying this little blessing as she grows everyday. We are so thankful for this beautiful gift sent by God.

 

She Has Arrived

Our sweet little bundle of Joy has arrived. Annaliese Joy was born on April 2nd at 1:01 a.m.. Long hard labor but in the end we were blessed with a beautiful 10 lb baby girl  who is perfect and healthy. She does have a broken clavicle but that will heal in a couple of weeks. We as a family are rejoicing.

I can't Believe It Has Been So Long

 Wow I can't believe it has been 5 weeks since I have blogged. During those 5 weeks we have been sick and trying to get ready for the new baby. We had some visitors surprise our daughters the middle of Feb.We all had a wonderful time. These girls are not just friends to us they are family. It was so sweet of them to come and visit. We miss them so much and can't wait until May when we can see them again.

 We had a couple of birthdays in our house. Brecken Turned 9 On Feb. 26th. She was so excited when she saw her new bike. She rides it in the basement almost everyday.

 This little guy also had a birthday. I can't believe he is 2. I really do not know where the time  has gone.

I also wanted to share that we had our dear friends the Williams visit us the beginning of Feb. They have 7 children so it is always a house full when we all get together. We haven't seen them in over a year but you would think it was just yesterday. It is great to have friends like that.


So now I sit and wait for this little one to come.16 days left but who's counting. I am getting really excited and can't wait to hold and cuddle another little one. Maybe the next time I post it will be announcing the birth of our little one, or maybe it will just be to say that we are still waiting.

8 Weeks Left

Wow I can't believe I only have 8 weeks until we meet our little girl. I am getting really excited and can't wait to hold her. This has been a pretty uneventful pregnancy which is always nice. I am to the point where I can't sleep very well at night but I am not to the point of being totally uncomfortable.

Not much happening in our house. We are just pushing through our school. Got a late start this year with the move. Really did not start until Nov, so we are trying to just do one day at a time and not feel overwhelmed. I am going to try and do school up until I have the baby, we only have one snag that may cause us to take a break. My oldest has to have oral surgery and get a full new set of braces on the middle of March so we might take a couple of days off then so we can take care of her. She had braces already but they were removed to early with a tooth that never came up so we will be having surgery to pull the tooth up and then at the same time have her wisdom teeth pulled so I think she will need some days off. The lesson we have learned from this is to set our foot down when we feel something is not being done right. I knew those braces should not come off but the ortho told me it would be fine. Expensive lesson to learn but we are committed to taking care of every area of our children's lives, spiritual, physical, mental, etc.

Hopefully my next post won't take me 2 months to write. God Bless may you all have a Blessed Week.

Missing Nebraska

 A friend from Omaha sent me these pictures today and it brought back many fond memories of our days in Nebraska and Iowa. This top one is of Kharis sitting in the tire swing at our church. So thankful the Lord placed us there for a season. It was a wonderful church family and we miss them dearly.

This picture of Brecken is of her swimming at our dearest friends the Cherry's. They became family to us and we have many great memories of spending time with all of them. Can't wait for May when we will all be back together again.

This is a picture of Uriah sitting on our Pastor's lap. I think it was at a graduation but I am not sure. I just love this picture because this is who Pastor Larry was, a man who loved children. The children in the church would flock to him and he would never turn them away. Remind you of someone? Jesus loved the little children , well so did Pastor Larry.

Thanks Valerie for sharing. Missing all of you back in Iowa and Nebraska. Can't wait until May when we come to visit.


 

Happy 16th Birthday

I can't believe that 16 years ago today I gave birth to my first child. She was a little girl and mommy was so excited. She had thick black hair and big brown eyes. Her father and I were in awe. Well 16 years later we are still in awe. She is a beautiful young lady who loves the Lord and seeks to live her life according to His will. I am so blessed and so thankful to call her my daughter.


        Happy Birthday Emily. I love you and am so very proud of you!!!

We're Seeing Pink

We are happy to announce that these cute pink shoes will come in handy at our house. The Lord has blessed us with another little girl. She will be making her arrival sometime during the end of March beginning of April. We are all so excited to meet her.











 

Happy Birthday Dad

Happy Birthday Dad. Hope you have a great day and a great year. You are an amazing grandpa to all of your grandchildren. Loved this picture of you and your youngest grandchild (Uriah).

                                                                  Happy Birthday

Here in Colorado

Well we have been here in Colorado for almost a month now. We are pretty much settled in and back to life. 2 weeks after we moved here we went on vacation for a little over a week. We are back from vacation and back to real life. Schooling, cleaning, laundry, playing, etc...

The children have settled in and seem to be adjusting well to their new home. We are trying to get ready for the Christmas season, but not really feeling it this year.

My oldest is turning 16 in 9 days. Where has the time gone. She is such a blessing and a help to her momma and her whole family.

Well that is all for now. I will try to blog more, but I am not even sure if there is anyone still out there.

It's Been A Long Time

I am not even sure if anyone still reads this blog. I have been wanting to blog but always feel like there is nothing to blog about.

Well things are definitely changing at our house. We are MOVING. Hubby got a great promotion so we are moving to Denver the end of October. We are busy, busy , busy getting everything ready but also very excited about this new adventure. I will keep you all posted with how things are going.

6 Big Sisters

This is what happens when you are the little brother of 6 big sisters. They give you crackers and you wear whatever they put on you.

Noah's Ark

Just a couple of nights the kids grandparents  were in town so they got to see the lovely family in action. Lately during our dinners the conversations have been very interesting. The 3 year old was being obnoxious as usual and saying no about not sitting in his chair. Grandpa being the jokster that he is said, "Noah. Well I thought he was a Bible character." This got the children all talking about how he brought the animals in 2 by 2, then they started naming off all the animals that were brought on the ark. The 8 year old says," horses, and bears, and mules."
I stop her and say,"No. There were no mules but we are not going to talk about this again."

I was not going down the road of animals mating this time.

So The almost 10 year old pops up and says in a serious, but cute, matter of fact voice,

"Noah built an ark and God sent the animals in 2 by 2. Not 2 males not 2 females, but a MALE and a FEMALE, to repopulate the earth. The End.

I guess she has it all figured out.

         Wow it has been a really long time since I posted. Life has been changing for our family. Daddy did not get his dream job and we were all very disappointed but we kept our eyes up and waited to see where the Lord was going to lead us next. We sold our house in December and rented it back from the buyer until May1st. In Feb was when we found out that we would not be moving across country, so we knew we needed to start looking for a place to rent closer to Daddy's work. When we first started looking it was pretty depressing because with our budget it was looking like we would be living like sardines. Then one weekend I was really disappointed after looking at one of the houses. I knew we were going to have to get rid of the piano and it would be a really tight fit. After discussing this we decided to up our rental budget by $150. Later that week my husband was offered a different job position at work, he decided to take it because he would be working 8to 5. First time in almost 17 years. Boy were we all excited about this news. Then a couple of days later his boss called him to tell him he was also going to give him a raise. What?? Could this really be happening at a place where Daddy was sure he would never move up. It was and it was all God.

         Now on to the house. We had gone to church on Sunday and Marc had asked for prayer for us to find a house we could afford in our rental budget. We stayed for our usual fellowship l inch and then had an appointment to look at a house that was about 10 minutes from church. We looked at the house wrote a check for the deposit and moved in about 3 weeks later. Now we live 10 minutes from church and about 20 minutes from daddy's work. God is so good how he works all the details out. A year ago I would have never seen us living here and I never thought my hubby could be happy with the company he was working for. We persevered this trial and the Lord blessed us many, many times over.

         One more little note. A cute note to say the least. Last night during dinner our 8 year old was telling Daddy about a mule that she saw at her friends house. He went on to tell her that you could only get a mule if the a donkey and horse are bred together. The conversation goes on with the questions of how come mules can 't have babies? Then well how do they mate? As it keeps going I am thinking to my self I really don't want to have this conversation right now. Our little 5 year old finally chimes in with ," If they can't have babies they could adopt." We all laughed and were thankful for a little change of topic. But then again the 8 year old asks, " Well how do they mate daddy?" "By clicking their heels together." This was her answer and this is how the conversation ended for now...... We will discuss it at a much more appropriate age. For now in our family we have come to the conclusion that mules can adopt if they can't have babies, and that they mate by clicking their heels together. Nice way to end the dinner conversation.

I'm glad to be back and I hope I haven't lost all of my followers.
Have a blessed week.

Birthdays

Here is the little guy with his cake. He wasn't real interested in it. most of our kids devour their first cake he just looked at it and ate a little bit of the frosting.

This was precious little guy 1 year ago. Where has this year gone?

His big sister Brecken also had a birthday the same week as his. Hers was first and her surprise was a visit from her Grandparents and......

Horse lessons. What a great week we had with Gram and Grandpa. Celebrating 2 birthdays, going to the movies, going to the first horse lesson, and just spending time together as a family. Thank you Gram and Grandpa we all had a wonderful time.

Levi's first trip to the Dentist

Levi had his first trip to the dentist a few weeks ago. He has waited for this day for a long time. Every time we go he asks is it my turn mommy. We wanted to wait until he was 3 so that he would sit still.

He did awesome listening to instructions and sitting still. The biggest problem we had was getting him to stop talking long enough so they could clean and examine his teeth. Not sure when my little boy decided to grow up, but I guess that happens. They don't stay babies for ever.

This is the new Levi after being at the dentist, don't you just love his green teeth.