Thankful Thursday!

I am thankful for our new Aldi's that just opened.  We bought a bunch of strawberries for $1 a pound which was a wonderful deal!  The kids found this jewel in one of the boxes.  It was four strawberries grown all together into one beautiful berry!

Johnston and Becca were the only middles up so they took some pictures!

And more pictures!

Doesn't it look like a heart in Becca's hands?  So sweet!

 

Then they cut it in half and enjoyed it!

The rest of the strawberries were enjoyed as dessert served over vanilla yogurt!  Yummy!

Wonderful Wednesday!

The rain kept Tim home today which we always love.  It's out favorite thing having daddy home.  I am so grateful to have a man that loves us so much.  I'm so proud of who he has become and how far in his fathering skills he has traveled.  It's not easy going from a dad of two littles boys who you've learned your parents skill with as they've grown from birth, to being a parent of teens and young adults overnight.  No skills, no training, no connection at first.  It's a growing experience.  I love that the kids think it's like a holiday having Tim home during the week!!!

Holland asked daddy to fix her hair.  He looked at her horrified!  I tell you he is growing in so many ways.  Every daddy needs to do his little girls hair right?  So being the good sport he is he did her hair.

Of course he added his flair to it.  Here he is brushing her hair with the handle of the brush!  She thought it was so hilarious!

He had her laughing so hard!

Showing him what part of the brush to use!

It took him awhile, but she was a very good teacher and finally got her hair done.  He did a very good job actually!  She absolutely loves her daddy!!!

Spring must be around somewhere

We have been so busy today.  It's that time of the year where we reorganize, clear out our stuff, simplify, change clothing around, etc.  This is on top of school and general life happenings of course.  Today Jackson moved out to his own place.  So this opened up the window for us to move Max into Justice's room and clear out one of the beds from the upstairs boys room.  We have been busy moving, cleaning, and reorganizing just to accomplish the moving of one 13 year old!  I don't have pictures yet, but I will see about getting some of the rooms once we get them put back together.  We got about 90% of the rooms done today, but need to tweek things a smidge more.  Josalynd also got her own place down in Atlanta area where she works and will be starting college.  The place is located a few minutes from her job and a few minutes away from the college she will attend.  It is truly going to be a great thing for her.  So last night we cleaned out her room and Tim/Justice were able to deliver her stuff to her this afternoon.  Now we have our storage/school room set back up and have gained back the kitchen/play room space we had given up.  It's been a great day of starting Spring cleaning....getting everything fresh and clean.

 We also did some fun things like taking our bag of old broken crayons and turning them into something new and fun and interesting! 

 

 First the kids peeled, then I chopped all the crayons into small pieces.

Then the littles each filled three muffin tins with the bits of chopped crayons.

After the littles, the middles made three each.

Then into the oven they all went!  I forgot to take pictures of the new crayons, but they did turn out really neat and the kids have already tried them out.

Some wacky kiddos!

We also did some normal school stuff, but did some fun extra stuff as well.  Max and Becca have been struggling over Parts of Speech in their differing grades.  So we've been doing some extra fun practice each day to just help get things grounded. 

 Becca writing a sentence about a butterfly!

Max doing some extra practice as well.  Morgan in the background was studying about her newest person of interest...Florence Nightingale.

Johnston was working on compound words.  I wrote a bunch of words on paper and he cut them out.  Then he put the words together making compound words.  He stumbled a few times, but grasped it quick enough.  He loves hands on learning!

Davidson was working on compound words as well.  He struggled with it for some time, but in the end he conquered the assignment.  I'm proud of his perseverance.

The rest of the day is history.  Middles and littles are in bed.  Oldies, Tim and I are chilling together and munching on egg rolls that Morgan made.  Sometimes it's just nice to chill out with your teens and hubby, not busy and going, just chilling out!

My kids laughter....

....makes my heart sing!  They have found something new that makes them howl with laughter!  The Andy Griffith Show!!!!  I have to admit...I also enjoy laughing with them!   This show is hilarious!!!!

The kids were blessed by Aunt Kathy with gift cards to Walmart.  One of the kiddos found season 1 on DVD for only $10 and purchased it for the family to enjoy!  Sweetness!!!!

Wild Wednesday!

Today was WILD!  Driving a 15 passenger van means we need to try and save our gas and not just be plain ole wasteful by running around just because we wanna get out of the house.  So I've been trying to do my part by keeping our trips to town down to one trip.  I've chosen Wednesday since we have to be in town for church.

Today started earlier then normal with a dentist appointment at 10am for Johnston and Jameson which meant we had to leave by 9:30.  Got there nice and early.  They were really busy so the boys were in the back from 10 until noon!  Praise the Lord for helping me with patience.  Good news is the kids got almost all their "paperwork" schooling done while we waited for the boys.  Finally around 12:30 the boys were released from the dentist's chairs and pronounced...cavity free!!!!  I'm so proud of them.  Good job brushing guys!

Our next appointment was the kids counseling session at 1pm.  We pulled into the parking lot at 12:55 and no one was there.  Hmmm....still confused on that.  We waited around just to make sure the kids counselor wasn't just grabbing lunch or something.  He never showed up so we went on our way.

Next on our list of errands was to run to the library to drop off books and get new ones.  Another errand off of our weekly list.  We didn't do more then stay a few minutes this week.  No children browsing at their leisure....we were in a hurry to our next outing...the park!

With extra time on our hands...like three hours....we headed to a park that we love to hang out at. I had thought ahead and packed a picnic lunch and extra snacks so I wouldn't have to buy lunch out.  It was such gorgeous weather....perfect park weather!  The kids played and played and played! 

 Jameson Joe my amazing gift from God!

Holly, Johnston, and Jensen playing some sort of lava game!

My beautiful Becca!

Davidson and Max swinging.  They loved swinging high and jumping off!

Holly loves to climb on stuff!

"The tunnel is swallowing me!"

50% Sweet, 50% Sassy, 100% Perfect!

Not exactly sure what was happening in this picture.  Johnston looks like he is playing dead and Johnston is in deep thought.

Jameson crossing the turning bridge!

 

Johnston ~ a cavity free smile!!!!

Morgan was trying to finish up a cross stitched book mark for her friend Rachel.

After the park we headed to Aldi's.  I can't tell you how extremely excited I am that we have an Aldi's in town now.  Such excitement...extreme excitement!  Morgan and I ran in to check out the newly opened Aldi's.  Bliss...it was bliss I tell you.  We were in and out for a little over $60 for the week of groceries. (We had to pick up a few items from Walmart that Aldi's didn't carry, but not much)  I picked up fresh Strawberries which the kids are still eating on thanks to my amazing Tupperware that is keeping it fresh longer.  We will definitely be going back.  Morgan was just as excited as I was!!!!

Since we were waiting for Tim to meet us for dinner I still had time to spare so I ran Justice to get his hair cut.  He was way past due for a cut...not a trim...but a good cut was needed.  His curls were  bugging him!  Why is it that the boys can sometimes have the most beautiful curls yet they want them cut off?  Well, Justice is one of these boys.  He has tightly curled hair mixed with loose curls...just beautiful.  Instead he likes to keep his short and in the fohawk style!  So his hair is now back to manageable and he is happy once again.

While Justice was thus busy Morgan took Jameson into the $ Store and he got to pick out a toy for having no cavities!  (Johnston received a Star Wars action figure that I had purchased long ago at Ross)

Jameson showing me his toy and beautiful cavity free smile!

We finally made it to Stevie B's for a dinner.  It was a fun treat!  We usually like to go to Stevie B's on Tuesday's because it's $1 night for all the middles and littles which rocks for us.  Plus with coupons and such we usually can all eat for under $30 which for a family our size is a sweet deal. So it was a real treat for us to go on a Wednesday instead!

The kids always get their own booth! 

 

There was a basketball game on the TVs so the kids were watching.

 The littles LOVE Stevie B's!

Jameson is just crazy!

Tim dropped the middles and littles off at the main campus for church and he took the oldies to the first night of the Solutions conference.  Tim and the kids had a wonderful night.  I am so glad they had this opportunity. I love seeing the growth and maturity in Justice and Morgan as they seek God more and more.  The desire in their hearts to follow Him and do what He asks of them.  They are two wondeful teenagers!

Today was a wild day I tell you.  I am so tired.  Home now, kids all tucked in, Tim, the oldies and I are all in our pjs and chilling out for a bit before we go to bed! Tomorrow will be a low key probably pajama day around here!!!!

Magical Monday!

Today started looking a little overcast, but it cleared up and was beautiful outside weather once again!  The kids were motivated to get school done, so done we got it!  While the older ones were getting their school work done, Jameson and Holland were playing Go Fish together.  They play together during school each day and they are so much fun to listen to sometimes!

 (Jameson and Holland playing Go Fish.  Davidson was finishing up his Math and Jensen was working on a letter to a penpal in Idaho!)

(They asked Johnston to play one game with them!)

After a quick lunch and short quiet time the kids escaped outside to play the afternoon and evening away.  Tim is out of town working so I figured it would be a great day to eat a simple dinner picnic outside.  The kids were very happy to have more time out there so it was a win-win for us all.  The kids got to play for an extra hour and I didn't have as big a mess to clean up tonight in the kitchen tonight!!!

(Becca being Becca!)

(By the end of the day Jensen had taught himself to flip upside down and swing by his knees!)

(Who cannot be joyful with these three around?)

It's nice having the swings for the little ones to play on so the older ones can be as wild as they want on the tire swing that Tim put up a while back.  Tim found a tractor tire on the side of the road where he was working and loaded it up.  He put it up for the kids for Valentine's Day!  It was the BEST gift ever...the gift that keeps giving!!!  It is so big that 8 of our children have piled on it at one time!

(Davidson tying rope to the swing for some wild experiment he thought up!)

(Max being a goofball!)

(This tire swing is much loved!)

With the extra time outside the littles didn't get to bed on time, but that's okay.  Since Tim is out of town I let the middles stay up.  We played Hand and Foot, listened to music, and drank yummy smoothies!  Johnston who doesn't like playing cards played with Legos instead.  He grabbed my camera and took oodles of pictures of the kids dancing around, making funny faces and just loving being together! I love my life...I truly truly do.

~Blessings!

Simple Sunday

Becca and Holland laughing over something before church!  This is the only picture from today! We came home changed into our pajamas, got some munchies and watched movies for the rest of the day!  It was a total shut down day of relaxation!  We definitely needed it!  I hope you all had a wonderful Lords Day!

~Blessings!

Another phase done!!!!

Well, our adventure didn't pan out this morning.  We are used to changing our plans at the last minute and we all go with the flow quite nicely. I'm so thankful for our children and their attitudes.  They woke at the crack of dawn prepared to go and when told Jensen might be sick they happily settled in to play with  Legos until the sun was fully up! Jensen had a fever and with us just all coming through the 24 hour flu (except Jensen) Tim and I did not want to chance going to the mountains and having Jensen start throwing up.  (Jensen turned out to be fine...just a small fever....Praise the Lord.)  So since the trip was off Tim decided to work on getting one of the arms of our play set installed.  This meant much digging had to be done and leveling on the playground we've been working on in back.

(Tim and Max getting the swing arm ready to attach to the tower!)

(The ground getting leveled and expanded for the swing arm to fit)

(Tim showing me how sturdy the new swing was!  Another phase done on the playset!)

 

Tim took all the kids outside with him leaving Morgan and I with some down time to work on blogs and such things. We had a nice time just chilling out, listening to music and working together.  She was able to get a lot of work finished on her blog and played around with some new things on it. 

  (Morgan working on her blog!)

 

The kids asked if they could have lunch outside at the tower.  We made them sandwiches, apples, and chips for them to picnic on!  Holland wanted to eat in her "Princess Tower"!  

(Lil Holly eating her lunch out at the tower!)

(Jensen, Johnston and Jameson were using the picnic table for the first time!)

 

All the kids worked so hard and it was so warm out that Morgan thought the kids would enjoy ice cream sandwiches.  She was completely right....they DID enjoy them!

(Becca sitting on the kids tire swing!)

(Holly was a huge mess after the dirt, lunch and an ice cream sandwich!)

(Davidson)

(Jensen and Jameson!)

(Johnston and Becca dressed as twins...camo shirts and blue shorts!)

Morgan and I got all the littles/middles in, showered (boy did they need them...yikes!), and fed them dinner while the older boys and Tim cleaned up outside.  We were done with the middles and littles showers and dinner by the time Tim got inside.  We even had time to watch a little bit of a new Thomas the Train movie before bed! While we were watching the movie I decided to trim this little mans wild locks!

(Wild Man Jensen!)

(He asked for a haircut where I could spike it on top...so off it came!)

(My Three Muskateers!)

After a long day of playing and working my middles and littles (Maxwell down to Holland) were ready to be in bed by 7pm.  They were tuckered out!!!!  Tim, Justice, Morgan and I are going to chill a little bit ourselves before we head to bed.  It's nice just being here together!  

~Blessings!