Beautiful Madi

Merry Christmas!

We have been so blessed, this year the kids were thrilled (as usual) with the gifts left by Santa, and family.

We all felt spoiled.

I especially was feeling the love!
Wes built SEVERAL projects for my present!
He built an Island, 2 HUGE shelves in the food storage room, hung the pot rack, hung the picture frame sent by Amanda & Bryce (LOVE IT!) and hung my two decorative shelves. He also found me a New Mac!

Thank you Wesley, YOU are AWESOME! I LOVE YOU! (and I am so happy you were with us this special time of year)

We love you.

Wes got a 'ruff' for his gift, it was made by a lady in Alaska out of Wolf, beaver & Wolverine furs. it keeps his face covered in the wind & cold in Alaska.

Christmas Eve 2009

On the 23rd Madi & I went to Wally World. we were walking back tot he car, and she surprised me and I threw my back out.
The next day we were scheduled to feed the missionaries, and we were expecting a HUGE blizzard.

I laid in bed until 2 when I got up to go to the AWESOME< WONDERFUL < AMAZING Chiropractor. She fixed me up as much as possible, and I went to pick up the missionaries.

We fed them (thank heavens my family pitched in made the turkey, stuffing, cheesy potatoes, and green bean casserole.

The Boys' Elder Hock & Elder Perry were great, they pitched in, helped prepare the food,and were such good sports (especially considering I was still in my pajamas)
We ate around 6:30 p.m. and had a devotional, the kids did the nativity, and they then opened the traditional Christmas Eve gift, PJ'S!

Co-Op Choir

The Home school CO-Op I co-chair, was able to sing at the Village, here are the kids singing "Baby in a manger"

It was beautiful.
Thanks to our Choir director Brenda, she is a real trooper teaching all 50 kids!

Zeke reading to the puppy

After playing with the girls, Zeke excused himself and sat down to read. He called the dog to his side, and read a story to her.

So sweet!

Zeke Goes outside to play in the snow

When we had our first snow, the girls finished thier school work & hurriedly dressed to playing the drifts. they were on the property border gleefully sledding.

Zeke decided he was going to join them, and dressed himself.

One boot, one Sunday shoe, two gloves, and a hat.






I took mercy on him, and dressed him in the Russian snow suit we got in Alaska, he was excited to join his sisters, and played warm & happy for hours!

This boy may not live much longer!

Zeke... the Great, The Terrible, The magnificent, the never ending terror!

I will simply make a list of the reason I have been so busy lately:

One broken toilet.
One clogged toilet
3 destroyed children's books.
a pencil poked into Abby's back.
DVD's thrown all over the family room
DVD's thrown down the stairs.
Books thrown off the shelves.
One dog let out of the house(unattended and new to the family, means possible run-away)
Broken DVD's (do you know how hard those are to break?!)
Naked streaking through the house.
Naughty words.
Screaming fits.
Fighting with sister.
Climbing onto the TV Armoire, TV Armoire falling onto him and breaking said Armoire.

This child may not live to his 4th birthday.

New family member

For our Christmas lists we had:
Wants, very few needs ;)
we are so blessed, and each of my kids have been gracious and giving, knowing there are SO MANY out of work, and who are anticipating a slim Holiday, we feel blessed to have so many of our needs met.


Madi:
Aero Sweats, Socks (cute) , Aero Jeans, Perfume, Cute Black heels, Shirts, Nail polish, Camera, ear rings, rings, shoes.(size Woman 8, shoes 9)

Abby:
Lump of coal, Ipod, peg leg jeans, MODEST shirts, (downeast or mod-be high neck tee shirts) American Girl Doll (Felicity) (Size Girls 12 slim, Shoes woman 8)

Gracie:
Clothes, Jeans, Long sleeve shirts, American Girl doll, Doll carry case, I pod, Cameron, Scarf. (Size Girls 8 slim, shoes 4)

Rubi:
Puppy, Repeater (I have no idea what this is?) adventure book (like the on on "UP") R.C. Car, Princess wallet, Robot,Tea set. (never enough tea sets!) (Size 6x shoes 1.5)

Zeke:
Dinosaurs, Lion, BRIO train set.(doesn't need clothes)

Elijah:
Blocks (doesn't need clothes)

So as Wes saw there was one request for a puppy! (Rubi) he jumped on it, did his fatherly duty and found a sweet little pup at the pound, and we now have a Jack Russel Pup again! We have missed our Jack's and we are all so happy to welcome "June" To our home!
Pictures to come soon!

Elijah's Bath

Elijah is such a fun boy, Here I took a couple photos in the bath tub. He has wiry, straight hair, that no matter what we do to it, it sticks up and goes its own way! So funny.

Long week, survived barely.

Yes, I barely survived this week, Elijah has been cranky (cry regardless of what he doing,) and Zeke is in his terrific 3's he has attempted to cut his finger off (not on purpose) he has ad numerous accidents (bathroom floor) and he keeps stripping down to nothing and streaking through the house (and yard.)

Wes comes home in the next 48 hours. I cant wait to let him take over.

I have quite the list of _to-dos for Wes this week, I hope to share pictures of "Ta-Da's" when he is done!

Visit from an Apostle.

November 8th 2009

Today was Stake Conference; we were honored by a visit from Russell M Nelson. Our stake presidency was reorganized and we were able to sustain the new leaders.

I was honestly debating all week about whether it would be worth it to wrangle the kids alone (Madi was on the stand with the choir & Wes was at work) and I had almost talked myself out of it. Sasha reminded me that I would be blessed if I just went, even if I was not able to hear a word, or get any insight from it. I am so blessed to have a good friend who encourages me.
Zeke was a handful (as usual,) he does not listen to any one, and Elijah ONLY wants me to hold him so although I had 2 wonderful teenaged helpers (Andrea & Chris) they did little as they watched me piled high with kids struggle and sweat through the entire session. (Eli did fall asleep for a while, and Zeke escaped to sit with Sasha for a blessed portion)

At the end of the Conference, as the kids & I were scuttling out the door, I noticed a throng of people lining the pathway for Elder Nelson & His sweet wife, Wendy. I thought Why not stand where he will walk past, just to see his face a little closer.

With no intentions of speaking to him, and little hope for being able to shake his hand, we stood anyway. I explained that if they were patient they may have the chance to shake the hand of an Apostle of the Lord. as we had all been there for 4 hours, and they were hungry. Gracie stood patiently, Abi stood wiggly, and Zeke & Rubi took off running.
People kept pushing their way to the front of the line, (Which I thought was terribly rude, as children were waiting in line & adults were pushing them out of the way…)

Eventually He was near, and a sweet elderly woman from our ward (in a wheelchair) was being greeted by Elder Nelson. The security guards stood with their backs in front of us, and there our hope dwindled and we couldn’t see him, nor could we have the chance to offer our hand.
Elder Nelson had passed us, he turned and looked into my eyes, I held out my hand, and he stepped back and took it, he spoke to Elijah, and said “What a big brother” and then looked up into my eyes, holding them (as tears welled up into my eyes seeing how pure and loving these eyes were I was overwhelmed and could think of nothing to say.) He looked down for a moment, as if to gather his thoughts and then looked up and spoke,
I want to keep private the words he shared with me, as they feel so sacred & endearing.

It was as if the Savior himself had said these words to me, giving me the encouragement and love and tenderness every daughter craves, I was overwhelmed with his sincerity and love. I will never forget the look of his eyes and the way I felt.

What an honor.

My Sunday School kids

I invited the Sunday School kids over for a Halloween party. We had been planning a party for some time, but it was moved to Today. One of the kids in the class is a farmer. (impressive eh> he is 14 and already has a ton of responsibility!) He had beans to combine and so we delayed the party until Halloween.

ANY WHOOO.....

Here is a slide show of some of the kids.

After we ate & the boys shot at the girls with a marshmallow gun, we played Hieroglyphics in the carpet and then the older kids went outside. (mind you, I had 5 kids that were not part of the party, and Sasha had her 5 that were too young for the party, but that didn't stop them from hanging all over these teenagers.) they were good sports though. VERY GOOD KIDS, I have truly grown to love them all!

Then we scuttled off to visit Co-Ann, the girls' widowed friend from our old house, she is so sweet & loves to shower the girls with treats! It has been fun for them to have a grandmother type to show off for occasionally.

They got to Trick-Or-Treat for an hour, and then we came home. Sugar high crashed, and they are all in bed.


More pictures to come (the computer keeps locking up, since I have over 6,500 pictures on it)

Progress so far. (IS it cheating?)

OK, the goal is to save money on groceries, and here is some of the Menu so far:

We have home made bread stuffed French toast. Two thumbs up from everyone in the house.

Korean Kimchi with cabbage (couldn't get them to even eat a bite) it is a No-repeater.

Burgers on home made buns with home style fries. (Baked and were good)

Home made pizza

Oatmeal & apples with pecans.

Blue Ribbon Pancake mix another 2-thumbs up. (Breakfasts so far are going well :)

BBQ beef sandwiches on home made buns. Three thumbs up if that is possible!?

Here is where I feel like we are cheating: We had an opportunity for Wes to trade some finish work for a COW! Yep 200 lbs. of Beef. In the freezer it goes. so the majority of our $350.00 for groceries went towards a Freezer. That is OK with me, it is nice to know i will have beef, & Potatoes on hand for a year.

We are ordering 200 lbs of potatoes and 50lbs of carrots and 150lbs of onions. We should be set for a life of winter luxury.


This should help out with the budget crunch.
Doncha Think?

Inspiration and wit.

This is How I choose to describe Mary Ostyn."Inspirational & Witty" She has written 2 books, the newest I just finished reading today, and we had a Family Home evening picking our favorite recipes from her book.

I am so excited to try them out, they sound delish! and easy, and real life! 3 things that are important.



Her book Family Feasts on $75 a week
Offers simple and precise ways to save money on groceries (which takes up nearly 1/3 of our budget. ) I admit I have allot of improvement, I blame my sloppy budget on the fact that we live in a rural town, and our One & only shopping opportunity is *Wally World*

Not so anymore, I will be making a better effort to scour the deals, and make my budget go further, besides if I can etch out of my budget just enough for a new pair of shoes, well that alone will be worth the extra effort, but more likely I will be spending it on thrift store finds, winter clothes, and now Christmas! (Yes can you believe it is time to start planning & buying for Christmas!??)

So go find this book, buy it, it is worth it, the recipe portion alone is worth having on hand, to slop sauce on, and to use and abuse. Eventually I will have these recipes memorized, but for now, I will faithfully put the book in the hot spot, and use the heck out of it.

Praying that the budget changes will help me feel on top of my finances instead of being controlled by my finances... the extra breathing room will be nice. (which could be true to anyone's budget, not matter what size!)

Goal: Spend $350.00 on groceries for 30 days.

Wes made it home

Each month when Wes flies home, i anticipate a HUGE load of supplies,and the exclamation "I am home for good!" I even dream he is laid off, just for the selfish purpose of having him home for good.

I know, not very realistic, but a girl can dream right???


At least he is home for now, and I am putting him right to work.

Chop-Chop, no sleeping in, get right to the honey-do list!

:)

Tribulation...

D&C 103: 12-13
12 For after much tribulation, as I have said unto you in a former commandment, cometh the blessing.
13 Behold, this is the blessing which I have promised after your tribulations, and the tribulations of your brethren—your redemption, and the redemption of your brethren, even their restoration to the land of Zion, to be established, no more to be thrown down.




If you don't get this joke, just take out the "Missouri" part, input your personal trial and smile.


Those of us in Missouri know & agree.



If you want to know what we mean, feel free to purchase a plot of land and join us!

Elijah is Crawling!

He has been scooting himself backwards for about 3 weeks now. He just crawled officially and purposely towards me!
I had to document so he (in 30 years ) will know I paid attention to him!
I Love this little squirt!

Tests, Trials & Miracles...

This past week has been a whirlwind of emotions. A dear friend of mine has been through a total ringer/trauma of a lifetime. Her sweet husband was hit by a Super-Duty truck going 60+ MPH. She witnessed it.

If I had written this post last week, it would have been bleak, to say the least. It was a minute by minute change in status. He had numerous internal wounds, and was prayed back to health & safety. Yesterday he was out of bed WALKING! Honestly. I am amazed.

Learning the lessons the Lord has in mind for us, are not easy, nor is it comfortable. We are pushed, shoved and sometimes PUMMELED into submission, to become what He wants us to be.

I am making it a personal goal to be humble and submissive to the Lords will. I do not want to be compelled to be humble. humility is not my strong suit. I have an independent streak a mile wide. I like to do it on my own, on my terms and in my schedule.

Not always conducive to be a servant in His hands, to be able to grasp towards the goal that He has in mind for me. I know this of myself. I know that I am too often that fool hanging from a thread, and begging for help, and in the successful outcome, I pat myself on the back rather than give credit to Him.


I will try harder. I am setting a goal to turn over a new leaf, to be a better help-meet, a better nurturer, and a better servant.

I love the Lord, and I want to do His will. I will try harder.

For Sale by Owner

One house For sale. Built with love and all the expertise we could find.

We have built it to stand the test of multiple children! with hard floors, and room to play and learn. We figure it should house up to 12 kids. Two HUGE bedrooms and one average sized room. Master bedroom in the basement with plans for an office/nursery/and master bathroom/closet suite.

We have felt led to sell the house. In order to be able to live together as a family (shocker eh?) we must be willing to do ANYTHING. Including move to Nome, or Utah, or Africa.

We do not have a plan beyond selling the house for now, but for all the pleading we have been doing with the Lord, he has asked us how much we are willing to sacrifice, and what we are willing to do, we are being tried & tested. Hopefully we will pass.

If you know anyone who wants to buy a 3600 Sq ft home, with 10 wooded, beautiful acres, surrounded by the best neighbors and friends you could ask for, let me know, we will hook them up!

$185,000.00

Happy Birthday Abigel!

A-Amazing
B-Beautiful
I-Insightful
G-Gracious
E-Energetic
L-Listener

Abigel, you are so FULL OF life! You are so fun to watch and learn from. Since you were born you have had the POWER to infulence and change others around you. When you were little, (around 3) we were in awe of your relationship with our Heavenly Father, you KNEW him, and when you prayed, you were heard & answered. Many times family & friends would call or visit, and ask you to add them to your prayers, and I can not tell you haw many times those prayers were answered. Just because it was you. My faithful one.

My forgiving one.

My Energetic one!

Abigel means. "Father's Joy" You have made it your mission to please & assist your father, he is so proud of you! He and I pray for your continued strength and energy, for your health & testimony, you are AWESOME! We are so proud of you!

Sweet baby Boy...

Jelly Rolls & Sewing projects.....

Free Win a Jelly Roll From :

Missouri Star Quilt Co.

Gramma came and sewed with the girls last week. We had so much fun. Well I did as I stood back and enjoyed watching the master at work!



Now for those photos.....

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Wes had a Birthday on Monday. We celebrated by going to a neighborhood picnic. Sadly without Wes. We thought of him, and sang to him and called him several times. He was busy with charter flights all day.


We Love Our Daddy!

Karate Advancments!

Happy Birthday Ezekiel!

Zeke turned 3. What a gem, he is so full of energy & mischief. He is the icing on the cake as far as fun & enjoying our family. All the girls just love him to death. We are so blessed to have him!

He potty trained himself and he loves the lightning McQueen undies!

Thanks to Aunt Jess we have had to purchase very few items of clothing since he was born.

Here he is in a rare appearance without mud on his face (note it is just after his bath)


We love you buddy!
Happy Birthday!!!

A month in the life of a Home school family....

Or, what I have been up to, therefore the reason I have not posted anything on the blog lately!
(WOW a run-on sentence, I will have to work on my grammar! )

I made the goal to spend less time on the Internet. I had programmed the computer to turn on automatically, and then I have been leaving it on all day, thus sucking me into research and reading of blogs, in and out of my daily schedule... and ending up with the majority of my day sitting at the computer.

I have turned over a new leaf. I have spent 21 days away from the computer, only stopping in to answer emails and occasionally print off needed school pages.

I feel like a new woman!

I have gotten SO much accomplished. I feel like I have broken the shackles of addiction. Of course I have to keep up on it, and I plan to stay away from the 'puter until after school work is done with all the kids. For us this means I do not get on the computer until after lunch. (when each of the kids are reading and doing individual projects, and my teacher portion is done)

SO here is the schedule:
Wake between 6 - 6:30
Breakfast & get 2 kids off to tutoring. (Thanks Cindy!!)
Tutor 2 kids in phonics & reading and two kids in advanced studies.
Zeke or Rubi attend a co-op Kindergarten class at C's (9-11)

breaking for exercise and then prepare lunch.

Clean up form lunch and read to the kids aloud from 'classic' lit.

get kids off to personal study time and then attend to household chores.

Computer turns on around 1 p.m. print off lesson worksheets needed & blog.

Check emails and respond.

Turn off computer no later than 3.

I have allot of projects going on right now, and I have created a whole new outlook for my life, I have found opportunities for my kids to serve in the community, and I have found incentives I can afford to offer for thier good behavior.

With deadlines & schedules we have more reason to kick it into gear and get our work done. Quickly & daily!

Yeah for a new school year!!!
Yeah for the inspiration to swap kids & cooperate with other parents to help our kids.
I love having them hole with me, and I especially love being able to feel a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day.

Enquiring minds want to know?.....

OK, no one has really said they want to know, but I have decided to share some of the pictures of our house. You know how rare it is clean enough to take a picture, and the rarity compounds when the mom has the energy to documents such cleanliness after cleaning the house... well here goes.