It's Friday!!!!!

We have done so well this week in keeping our trips to town down to one.  I can't believe it...only one trip to town.  Woohoo! That is probably why I feel so refreshed and not frazzled.  No running around hither and yon. We picked Wednesday to be our big day out.  We got school done then off to kids counseling, playground/picnic, weekly visit to Sams/Walmart for groceries, quick stop at Ross, dinner at the park since the weather was absolutely gorgeous, and then church. We packed an extra large cooler with ice so the food was okay in the van while we were running around and at church.  It made for a long day, but it was nice to have the rest of our week at home doing fun stuff. 

We have a night every other week dedicated to Justice and last night was his night. We leave all the younger kids at home with a sitter and Justice has us all to himself.  The first year Justice was with us we worked on basic skills such as taking care of himself, manners, etc.  The second year we worked on him coming out of the bubble world he seemed to live in, strengthening his body, braces, doctors visits regarding his legs, etc. This year we have been working on social skills and adult living skills.  He does his own laundry, is learning to cook for himself and others, learning how to take care of a car, etc.  We needed to find something to help with his social skills as well.  We had tried all kinds of different things.  Homeschool group get togethers, youth group outings, normal things, but Justice just doesn't know how to work the social thing yet.  He ends up wandering around by himself or standing behind a group of people unsure of how to enter into whatever is happening.  So after looking around we found a group that is for teens like Justice that focuses on teaching them social skills.  It has been wonderful for him.  For the first time in the two plus years he has lived with us Justice can walk into a room and not be the one that stuck out like a sore thumb.  He was excepted from the second he walked in the room.  This group is for teens who have Aspergers, Autism, or are somewhere on the spectrum.  The whole purpose is for teens to get together with one adult (usually a trained therapist) who guides them in playing games that help them with social skills then they have a time of eating and mingling with the adults.  The parents sit in another room and talk about just everything.  Kind of like a support group.  Tim and I have been blessed by the other parents in the group, but beyond anything we get from this, it's about Justice.  I'm so excited for this opportunity and what will come of it.  We are enjoy sharing this with him and he seems to be enjoying us tagging along! :)

I was so thankful for the gorgeous weather we had today.  It was hard keeping the kids focused on school and not on the hundreds of things they would rather have been doing outside.  We succeeded though in getting done with hours left in the day for them to accomplish the important things outside.  It's been so wonderful having a week to stay home and enjoy all the beautiful weather.

Tonight was Friday Family Fun Night or FFFN!  The kids and I made a Spaghetti feast for dinner.  It was so much fun to make together. (Lots more mess with the littles, but they so love helping and what can you do when you have little eyes looking at you excitedly?)  Everyone got involved in the making of this said feast from Holland up to Tim.  (He makes killer garlic bread!)  We usually have a whole night of fun like bowling competitions on our Wii, or kickball at a park, but tonight we are headed to bed early because Tim is taking us on an adventure tomorrow!!!!! 

 Johnston enjoying his bread!  Lots of happy kiddos actually!

Holland and Jameson barely said a word the entire dinner...they REALLY enjoyed it!  It was all over their faces...LOL!

After dinner Tim helped Jackson work on his car.  I am so thankful for a hubby who tries everything to fix it himself first before shelling out who knows how much for someone else to do it.  So far we've only once in 11 years of marriage paid someone else to fix something on our cars.  I cannot even begin to think of how much we have saved over the years.  It's wonderful to see him helping our son work on his car and our other boys helping them.  What a great way for fathers to bond with their sons and even daughters? Tim eventually had to come in to get ready for tomorrow, but Jackson finished it and now has a running gas guzzler again!

While Tim was outside helping Jax, the middles and oldies cleaned the dinner mess up for me so I could snuggle up with a couple littles who asked to watch a little something before bed and I will not say no to snuggles with these two cuties!

 Holly Bolly all smiles and cutie-pie yumminess!

 Jameson wanted me to make sure I had Bumblebee in the picture!  LOL!

Waiting for their Psalty musical to come on...Precious!

Morgan surprised us with homemade chocolate chip cookies for us to munch on while we enjoyed our latest Bones episode after all the kids Max down were tucked into bed.  She is so sweet and thoughtful! Her latest thing is baking.  She has told me that she likes cooking....um....not so much....but she does really like to bake.  So she has been making yummy breakfast muffins, granola bars, and healthy goodies for the kids.  Tim and I are throwing around the idea of finding a cake making class for her.  We shall see!

 Jax, Morgan and I are the only ones up now.  Jax is down doing his thing on his computer, while I am blogging on Tim's laptop and Morgan is using my laptop to Skype with her best buddy Rachel who lives down in Alpharetta.  Lots of laughing gone on from that duo!!!!  It's been a long day and I'm hours away from going on an adventure with the JeffriesClan so I had better get to bed.

~Blessings

Thankful Thursday!

Things I'm thankful for:

1. A husband who works harder then anyone I know to support our family and having such an amazing attitude while doing so!  He goes to work before we get up so that he can be home almost every night for dinner and family happenings.

2. Justice ~ words can't descirbe how special he is.  He is loyal, loving, kind, honest, compassionate.  I so admire him and the man he is becoming.  As he struggles with his disabilities I admire his courage to face whatever comes up in front of him with the strength of a lion.


3. Children who try to honor us as parents and love us unconditionally.  Even when we fall short of the mark they are amazing in their love and obedience.  I'm truly humbled by their hearts!

4. A home that is full of craziness!  :)  Never is there a dull moment in our home.  The noise level can reach  deafening at times.  It's all good noise though.  Laughter, disagreements that turn into learning lessons, wars of all kinds, constant dancing and musical performances, etc.  I love it!

5. Listening to my 5 year old Jameson playing with his toys and then out of no where he breaks into worship/praise songs.  Just in his own world worshiping God and playing with his toys.  Or when he is sitting in his cars seat and through all the noise in our van he hears a song on the radio and asks me to please turn it up so he can sing along.  :)

I'm one blessed lady!

The kids can cook and other things!

Johnston has been bugging me for week now to allow him to cook.  You know...cook for school!  LOL!  So finally I let him and his crew (Becca and Max) cook dinner for us last week.  They got in their and made some of the best beef stew I have ever had.  Loaded with carrots, celery, onions, garlic, potatoes and of course yummy angus beef!  It was wonderful hearing them in the kitchen laughing together as they created something for the family.  It was a true blessing and boy were they proud of it when we all sat down to our family meal that night.  It was truly amazing!  The flame is under them now and so today I allowed them to once again get in the kitchen.  They made Creamy Chicken which we will use for burritos tonight.  It smells heavenly!!!!!  I'll post the recipe since it was so easy...I think my littles could make this meal...if it tastes as good as it smells. :)

I love rainy days.  It means my Timmer is home for the day.  A full day with daddy is always wonderful!  He has had one busy daddy at home day.  With 10 kids at home there is always something to do with someone.  He helped Jackson work on his car, helped Morgan with her essay writing, helped Becca with her division, grilled some steaks that we surprised him with last week, has bestowed dozens of wonderful kisses on me, and just finished a 10 minute snuggle with Johnston.  The day is only half over!!!!  He is such a blessing to me!

Snack time is over and the kids have scattered.  Johnston and Davidson who have earned some extra play time today for doing awesome in school today are downstairs with Jensen playing Star Wars. Becca is still working on division with Tim (she does not like division), while Morgan is finishing up her essay.  Holland just finished up her snack which she informed me "Mommy, that is not going on my favorites list."  I had to laugh at her serious little face...because she was not joking!  Probably why it took her so long to eat.  Note to self: Parmesan Popcorn rock the boys world, but not Hollands! 

Jensen, Holland, and Jameson just brought up Thomas the Train toys.  They've decided to turn the living room into the Island of Sodor! Lots of happy chatter as they build the tracks.  They've been working diligently on being kind to each other and sharing nicely.  (Something Jensen and Jameson both strong willed and take charge leader guys were struggling with!)  So they've been working on talking respectfully to each other, not taking the best for themselves, etc.  Oh...Tim just got in on the action.  Being an engineer he can't help himself I guess. I knew he wouldn't be able to sit here for long while they had all the fun building the tracks!!!! :)

I decided today to write as I had time...this works wonderfully for me.  I can grab 5 minutes here or there to jump on my laptop between our daily life happenings.  This helps me not feel so overwhelmed at night when I want to blog and talk about what's happened during the day, yet just mentally want to shut down and watch Bones with my hubby while we are snugged on our couch.  So now I've already gotten a jump on todays post and don't feel so overwhelmed!  I likey!!!!

Dinner was a big hit!  The kids made an amazing meal which will feed us probably two more dinners.  We might change things up tomorrow and eat it over rice instead of in tortillas.  It sure was yummy and oh so easy to make.  They even made it look pretty by adding lettuce and chopped tomato which just added to the yum factor for me!  I told them that the only thing in my humble opinion that would have made it "over the top" good....home made chimole!  Hmmmm....we are hitting Sam's club tomorrow afternoon....might just have to get us the ingredients.

The middles and littles are long since in bed and sleeping!  Tim, Morgan and Justice are discussing a hike they are wanting to go on in North Georgia this Saturday. (Which will turn in Tim got a new handy dandy hand held GPS thingy for his birthday in January.  He has been aching oh so much to go and use said....thingy.  Jackson is out with his friends after attending a class at church and Jossy is doing....I'm not quite sure....but I hope she is having lots of fun!  Well, Tim just asked if I want to snuggle and watch something before we head to bed...oh yeah!!!!....so I"m off my friends!

Blessings!

A friendly visit!

Last month my wonderful friend Elizabeth and her sister Kathy came all the way from Vegas to visit me and the family.  They spoiled me ROTTEN!  Oh my did they.

(My amazing friend/sister in the Lord ~ Elizabeth)

(The wonderfully funny and amazing Kathy! I truly enjoyed getting to know her!!!)

Tim gave me the entire weekend off from any and all duties.  So I stayed in Alpharetta with them at their hotel.  Friday night we stopped at Longhorn for dinner on our way to the hotel to check in....yummy!  It was so much fun just hanging out, laughing and talking. 

Saturday I was spoiled with a wonderful pedicure which I forgot to take pictures of...but my toes felt and looked marvelous!!!  Then Elizabeth and Kathy got their hair done.  Josalynd surprised us with her presence so we got to spend a few hours with her!!!

( Me and my beautiful Jossy!!!)

We took a quick trip to the outlets in Dawsonville and then dinner at the Melting Pot!  Oh my was that good!  It took us about two and a half hours to eat, but goodness it was decadent!  We stayed up way late talking which was oodles of fun!

Sunday we spent with my family: 

 (Tim and I hadn't seen each other in 36 hours!  Had to get some kisses in!)

Kathy bought a banquet feast of fresh fruit, make your own subs, veggies, chips, drink and Drumsticks for dessert! The kids were in utter bliss over all the varieties of fresh fruit: pineapple, apples, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries...she spoiled them!!! It was all good though!

(Justice loved the all you can eat aspect of the meal!)

(Morgan loves having subs....without mustard!!!!  

That's something very important to our kids...no mustard!!!!)

(Max had a huge sub and went back for seconds!!!

Growing boy and all that!!!)

(Jameson loved having dip for his veggies!!!!)

(Jackson looks like he would love to be sitting somewhere else!  LOL!

Josalynd being annoying...which from the look on his face...she was accomplishing it!  LOL!)

(Holland totally loving that Drumstick!)

(Morgan loving on the Betsy girl!)

(Betsy decided she wanted to play tug-a-bone with Morgan!)

(Becca got dressed up in her prom dress and Kathy braided her hair!)

(Cutie patootie Jensen!)

(Becca dressed Thumbaleena in a baby sleeper...poor dog!)

(Princess Holly showed up in her gown and shoes!)

It was a lot of fun and the kids really enjoyed seeing "Aunties" Elizabeth and Kathy!  Sunday night there was one last spoiling for me.  Elizabeth and Kathy treated me to dinner at P.F.Changs.  Oh my goodness...what an amazing restaurant!!!  Had lettuce wraps...I can't wait to make them at home for the family!  We had a great time and stayed until after closing. We were able to talk about Mike and Gabe that night and it was lovely to remember our two loved men in our lives and the knowledge that they are abiding in Heaven together.

Monday Elizabeth wanted to meet up with a few friends for lunch...so we met them at Red Robin.  After lunch they drove me home and off they went back to Vegas.  Thank you Elizabeth and Kathy!  I love you both and pray that God richly blesses you both each and every day!

It's been awhile...again!

So much has happened since my last post.  There is no way I can catch up so I won't try.  I put a block on my blog because certain people (you know who you are) were following (or stalking if you prefer) my bloggy blogs!  I've missed blogging so much though so here I am again.  After praying about it and talking with my sweetie pie I am unblocking my blog.  So here we go!

Snowy Monday!

We had 4 inches of snow....in Georgia!!!!   The kids woke to snow and it was like Christmas all over again.  They could hardly handle their excitement and were begging us to please gear up and get outside.  We looked pretty hilarious.  We were layering our kids in pajamas, jeans and whatever else we could find.  We were able to mix and match enough to get everyone covered and out we went.  We didn't even get to have breakfast they were so anxious!!!! 

 (Some of the JeffriesClan in front of the house!)

Jensen was waiting for his turn to get on the inner tube.

 Who can resist this precious face?  Not me!

 Davidson had no problem wearing his sisters hat!

 Johnston loved having Becca's scarf to keep warm!

Becca....I just love her so much!

Holland doing a snow angel.  She did about 100!  She was so excited to make her first snow angels!

 Jameson making even more snow angels.  It was the first thing the kids wanted to do when they got outside.  Snow Angels!!!!!

Jensen making his very first snow angel!

 

Johnston....playing Star Wars...was in the middle of a death scene.

 Our neighbor got out and shoveled his driveway...as you can see our driveway is still covered in snow.  The kids enjoyed the snow on our driveway.  They might not like it when we send them out in the morning to help clear the driveway.  It was fun though!

 Miss Holly lost her hat after rolling down the hill in the front of our house!

 Becca was the first to try out our inner tube on the hill beside our house.  We were so happy to find this inner tube still out.  We usually pack up our inner tubes with our summer camping stuff.  We go tubing alot. This tube some how didn't make it into the garage, but that's okay...the kids were very happy to have the tube instead of cardboard!

 Tim and all the kids rolled down the hill a few times to pack the snow so the tube would go faster!  It worked very well.  It's a bonus having an engineer as a father I think. 

 Holly kept putting her hat on backwards!

 Jensen about to go down the hill for the first time!  This was his first time sledding ever!  When he got to the bottom of the hill he threw his arms in the air...."THAT WAS AWESOME!"

The kids couldn't get enough of the rolling in the snow...or sliding down the hill on their stomachs or bottoms.  They will sleep good tonight for sure! 

We finally took a break.  Tim and the littles took a nap, some of the middles played outside, the oldies and myself enjoyed yummy hot cocoa and a game of Phase 10!

The middles saw our neighbors outside after dinner so they begged to go play.  Becca had a wee accident.  She went tubing on her stomach....her face stopped her!  All was well...she didn't even cry.  

A busy Sunday!

Today was the smoothest Sunday in as far as I can remember.  With the new year we decided to try out some new strategies.  Justice being a boy who only needs 15 minutes to get ready for church, woke up this morning at 6 and made breakfast, then at 6:30 he woke all the kids up and they ate.  This freed Tim and I up to shower and get ourselves ready.  By the time the kids were done eating they got dressed in the outfits that Becca (our fashionista) had helped me lay out the night before.  This way there was no last minute, "I can't find my socks!", "Is this a church shirt?", and the countless questions I get each Sunday when we are running around getting dressed.  By 7:15 I was doing little girls hair and last minute checks on all the little boys hair.  We were in the van by 7:45, which means we made it to church 45 minutes early!!!!!  It was great.  The kids played at the indoor play area with their friends.  Tim and I were able to fill out some paperwork that we have been wanting to get done so that we can start working in the children's ministry and also the junior high youth group.  We got our favorite seats and were able to just sit and talk for at least 15 minutes before church started.  It was so relaxing, which I think Sundays should be.  We will definitely be keeping this as our Sunday schedule. 

Beautiful Girl wearing her new dress!

Morgan our casual girl and Becca our fashion queen!

Since we chose to go to early service we got home around 11am.  Tim and the boys got changed loaded up in the truck and off they went to gather wood that will last us through February.  They brought home about 2 cords of wood.  They are my heroes!!!!  We love having fires every day and it saves us lots of money on our electric bill each month....BONUS!!!  So it was a huge blessings...did I say I have the bestest husband and boys in the entire world?  Well, I do!  Also, since it is snowing...again...in Georgia...we are going to love having the fire going tomorrow with all the sledding and thawing out we will be doing!

We also talked about Gabe (his birthday was today) lots and lots.  We laughed, we cried, we remembered....it was a good day remembering Gabe and his life. 

Today was also the two year anniversary of Josalynd coming to live with us.  We never in a million years dreamed that today Josalynd would be our daughter through adoption.  The past two years have been....wow....that's pretty much the best way to describe what we've been through as parents/daughter.  It's hard having a 19 year old come into your life with (at the time we didn't know this) a train car full of baggage.  God has been good though and through it all we have become strengthened and intertwined.   We are so proud of her and know that God has wonderful things in store for her.  She is an amazing woman who at 21 has overcome so many obstacles and still continues to grow.  I am truly proud to be her momma!  We were able to have dinner tonight just Josalynd, Tim and myself.  She chose Sonny's and had baby back ribs for the first time.  She loved them!

(We really enjoyed it!  Sorry there weren't pictures of us eating...we were talking to much!)

The snow has started and we are snug in our house.  All the littles are tucked in bed, the oldies are watching movies with us.  Drinking cappuccino's made with piles of whip cream and caramel made by the lovely Josalynd.  They are so yummy!  The weather is so bitter cold....but the kids are going to be so excited when they wake up and find out we have a snow day.  A day full of snow, sledding, hot chocolate, playing and best of all daddy, Josalynd, and Jackson will all be here with us.  So much fun!