Love Notes

Today two of my babies big kids left for summer camp.

They will only be gone 3 days but it's the first night and I'm already missing them:/

I'm sure there probably yelling “Who rocks the house?” until their blue in the face as I type this. Not even thinking about missing home. sigh.

I'm happy for them, and I know they are going to enjoy every minute and make such neat memories.

I've prayed for them this week that God will open their hearts to all he has for them this weekend and that they will grow in their walk because of this trip:)

I just have to share,

Faith wrote each of us a note (on her cute little stationary)

Dear Dad,

Thank you for working hard for us so we can do fun things! I love you so much! I'm glad we get to spend nights together at prom! You are the coolest dad in the world. Thank you for working for this family! Thank you for driving us across the country! Thank you for making money so we can have this house! When your gone I always wish you were here! That's why I like the weekends! Have a good day at work. I love you Dad! You set a very good example for us. Your the best Dad in the world!

Love, Faith

melt me!

Dear Mom,

I love you soooo much. I'm glad I was put in this family! I love this house and my room. I love you sooo much. It's fun when we can go for a drive all by ourselves!

Love, Faith

love this girl!

Dear Austin,

God Bless you Austin. It's so good to have a big brother around! Especially when your chain breaks on your bike or when you need help with a project! I'm glad God gave me a big brother! Your awesome! I love you so much! I hope you can use your talents for Him.

Love, Faith

ahhhh......

Dear Landen,

Your such a good brother, even when your wild! I will admit you are better than me in most things. I'm sorry about all the fits we have. I'll try to be a better sister. Yes, I do love you! I hope God can use your talents and energy for something to serve him.

Love, Faith

haha too sweet!

Dear Farrah,

I love you so much! Don't worry even when your older you'll still be a princess! You are such a good little sister to me. I love when you always want to hold my hand or you want to wear your boots because I'm wearing mine. I'm glad I'm your partner!

Love, Faith

they are so close even though they are 6 yrs apart.

Dear Finley,

I love you so much! It's good to have a little sister like you around. Your funny and you always want to snuggle. Your so pretty and sweet.

Love, Faith

love!

On another note...I'm 2 days short of 34 weeks!

I haven't been giving the little girls baths because of my big belly:)

It's hard to get up and down so I've just been throwing them in the shower.

Tonight Farrah said, "Mommy when are you going to stop spraying us off and just bath tub us again?"

I thought that was too cute!

I told her,

"Soon honey....we don't have much longer:)"

She has been asking almost every day since December, "when is the baby coming out?"

I'm sure she's starting to wonder if her Mommy will ever be normal again.


I took these pictures of me actually to send to my husband while he was at work. ha! By the time he gets home from work my hair is usually pulled up in a messy mom bun, I'm a sweaty mess and I have changed into whatever is comfy. Now days a moomoo. Poor guy! So, I sent him these because I did my hair, make-up and put on a dress. For once, maybe twice this pregnancy:0

I was getting ready to head out the door to a "baby sprinkle" my Mom and sisters were throwing me:) I'll share pics later.

I am seriously so excited to meet Fallon. It's so exciting to see who God will send to bless us with this time. Each of our children are so unique and precious. I can't wait to see the faces of my children as they see their little sister for the first time!

Not saying I'm the best Mom, but I really feel like I become a better Mom with each child I have. Maybe it's because I have more love:) oh...and the smell....It will be so nice to kiss and smell a little one again. I love the newborn scent, it's so sweet!

I also can't wait to share this time with my husband. I really believe the birth of a baby is the ultimate fulfillment of love between a husband and wife. I love him more with each child we have!

Ok, I'm getting mushy, but I just can. not. wait!

I feel so blessed that God has decided to reward us again with another little love:)

Vaccinations........

Last night I went to a vaccine workshop to educate myself on both sides of the vaccine debate. I have always wondered since my first child was born almost 12 years ago if I was doing the right thing. Now with having a newborn and being pressured by the "No Shot No School" campaign to vaccinate my 7th grader I feel I need to really educate myself. I have gone to a couple different workshops now, one being very pro-vaccine and the other being very against them. This meeting was hearing both sides pro's and con's. I went with an open mind and ready to learn. I am on information overload (so please bare with me as I just type what I had jotted down last night) and after leaving I felt like I had even more questions than I had walking in. It was an open type meeting where parents would ask questions and the panel of doctors would answer them. A very well respected doctor from Loma Linda was one of the doctors answering a lot of the questions. There were holistic doctors who were strongly against vaccines but Dr. Katiraei from Loma Linda was giving his take on vaccinations. He believes that there is a no size fits all vaccination. Every child is different. Every family is different and the environment they live in is different. The same dosage is given to an 8lb baby that they give to a 50lb child. Most vaccinations are protocol but not necessarily needed. Like the Hep B within 12 hours of birth. Who's idea was it to vaccinate ALL newborn babies for a sexually transmitted disease? Another example for protocol I saw last week was when I went in for a prenatal check up. I'm Rh-neg and so is my husband so I don't need the Rhogam shot. I know who the babies daddy is and therefore I do not need the shot. They still fought to give it to me because it's protocol. I have never had it before. I know who my babies daddies are:) I understand it's their job but as the patient you should know your own body and your own child. A lot of the pressure is to protect the doctor, which I can understand. It is his job, but it is our job as parents to know our children and what is best for them or us. Vaccinating them on the state or government schedule might not be best for your child's health. He also feels vaccines are more convenient for parents than they are for your child's health. So kids don't get sick therefore parents won't need to take time off work. It's good for kids to get sick, it builds the immune system. There is a place for vaccinations but vaccinating for everything under the sun is not safe. He went over what is in the vaccines such as foreign tissue, aborted fetus, mercury, aluminum etc.... He talked about the MMR being very unnatural for the body. Parents need to look into the long term effects that can be caused by vaccines. Many children will get vaccines and will be perfectly fine but in others it can trigger such things as autism, asthma, allergies, eczema (just to name a few) etc... The doctor recommended that each parent look at your child's family history. Your genetic pool, do you have autism in your family line, then maybe a vaccine could trigger it in your child. Something I never thought about that he brought up was to get the name, date, and batch your child's vaccine is coming from. What does the vaccine your getting your child grow on? Does your child have a food allergy to something that the vaccine in grown on. Breastfeeding is huge! They stressed how important breastfeeding is for your child. If you are not going to breastfeed your baby and put them in daycare at 6weeks etc (I'm using this as an example) then maybe you should vaccinate your child. Their immune system is not as strong as if you were to breastfeed. If you do plan on breastfeeding and your child will not be around a lot of kids then you should be fine not vaccinating them. Your child's diet plays a big part in their heath as well. A great resource is Dr. Feder's website you may want to take a look around her site. I also found this article helpful. As far as school, you are the parent and the school can't make you vaccinate your child. It really is as simple as a waiver, ok and a lot of hassle from them:) But remember you are the parent! Here is a list to help you find a vaccine friendly doctor near you either to skip vaccines all together (and they will happily treat your child), or help you with a more personal vaccine schedule or delay schedule.

I know some friends that didn't vaccinate their children until they went on mission trips. Then they were vaccinated before leaving the country. Or before joining the service. Or even entering college. Some schools do require.

The doctor that does have children doesn't vaccinate. The one who doesn't said if he were to vaccinate his child or his best friends child it would be only the following....


The Hib vaccine( doctor said it's still out there.)
Prevnar
and maybe Pertussis.
the Verasela vaccine (chicken pox) he recommends delaying until teenage years.



I'm going to be ordering this book:
The Parents' Concise Guide to Childhood Vaccinations by Dr. Lauren Feder

It covers important issues such as:

• If you have chosen to vaccinate your children, she offers both practical

medical and natural remedies to avoid possible side effects.

• If you have chosen not to vaccinate your children, she offers natural medicines to strengthen your child’s immune system, along with tips on how to deal with legal exemptions, school requirements, and medical insurance.

• If you’re just not sure what to do, she offers a balanced and easy-to-understand discussion of the issues, explaining the truth about the effectiveness of vaccinations, side effects, and much more.

My 11 yr old son Austin joined me as he is interested in the medical field and I felt it would be a good learning experience for him. As we walked out the first thing he said was, "You are not injecting me with the Pertussis!" I think the meeting scared him a bit as he said, "nothings safe!" It really does come down to educating yourself and knowing your children and what is best for each individual child. They are all different!!!

Please feel free to share in the comment section.
Those of you that attended the meeting last night, I'm sure I left a lot of info out, please feel free to add your comments as well.
This is a hot topic that many of us are confused on. I think it's important to take the time to look into it though!
I think we can all learn for each other.

A Wonderful Day Spent With My Kiddos

Yesterday I took the kids to Kidspace in Pasadena for a day of fun. I enjoyed watching them run around and just be kids...enjoying these days with them!
*pause music below*

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Daddy Daughter Prom

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Summer Fun!

We have already had so much fun and summer really doesn't start till tomorrow:)

Here's Landen celebrating his birthday at Chuck E Cheese......

Faith had a slumber party with just a couple friends...

Friends that stayed up till 4AM!:)

They had a couple hours of sleep before I took them to the water park!

They played hard...I told them to sit down while I went to the bathroom and when I came back they looked like this. hahaha!

This is not a posed picture!

They did wake up hungry after staying up all night so I took the crazy delirious girls out for some pancakes!

Farrah did get sleep, but she was the life of the party most of the night!

Faith opened up presents while waiting for breakfast....

What 10 yr old doesn't like clothes from Justice...

Farrah kept saying, "I could so wear that!" haha

Finley had a sleepover with Mommy and hung out with me most of the time. We had fun splashing each other.

This was birthday dinner! We took the girls to Red Robin and Farrah stood up to sing out loud to her sister...two girls are hiding because they were embarrassed.

Uncle Johnny and Brianna gave Landen great seats to the Angel game for his birthday....

So Justin and I took the boys!

make some noise!!!!


It was family Sunday so the kids got to play games before the game started...Here's Landen seeing how fast he can throw.

34 mph

Landen wanted to catch a ball so bad! We were in the perfect seats for all the foul balls but weren't one of the lucky ones...close but not close enough

It was hot for Mommy! I cooled of eating ice cream:) I did share a "few" bites

Austin loved taking pictures of the players...

and enjoyed eating the big hot dog with jalapenos (ew!).....

Look at that belly!:)

Landen getting spoiled with all the junk food...

It's for his birthday so we let him get spoiled:)

I don't think I've had a hot dog in about 10 years but for some reason Fallon felt like one....

We bought tickets for Faith to go see Francesca Battistelli in concert for her birthday. One of

her favorite songs is "Free To Be Me"

so she had to wear ripped jeans:)



This is her good friend Kelsie with her ripped jeans on too!

at the concert!

Some of her very good friends!

Here's me with my friends:) This is when I flew to Texas a few weeks ago to spend time with Tara from Too Many Kids In The Bathtub

She threw me a baby shower:)

It was such a blessing...even my friend Michelle drove about 5 hours to come see me. What a treat!

It was so neat to share this day with so many like minded friends.


Fallon's first bear...I look like I'm gonna cry over a bear! hormones!

I guess I was just really emotional and humbled with the fact that everyone was so generous. Some were blog friends, some old friends and some were ladies I have never even met before!

But...felt like I've known for years!

Tara is a wonderful homemaker and homeschool mom of 6! I have a lot to learn from her! It was so neat to be able to spend some time with her. She is like Mama Dugger, no joke! Just very quiet with a gentle spirit. She handles her children with such love and grace. It's such an inspiration. She has so many ideas about raising a big family. Lets just say I took many notes that weekend!

When I got home it made me want to be a better wife and mommy....

I missed my kids so much, but needed that vacation to refuel:)

Soon after I got back from my trip to Texas friends from Florida stopped by to stay the night. 2 homeschool moms traveling across the country with 11 kids! Jennifer from Herd of Hoskins

and I have been blog friends but haven't met in person. My husband is always a little hesitant with me meeting "friends" online. I felt very safe and comfortable with letting Jennifer know where we lived and letting all 13 of them stay with us.

What a supportive husband I have LOL...

Jennifer also runs a great Christian product review blog

We stayed up late talking and sharing. I enjoyed meeting her friend Cindy who has been a homeschool mama for years. I took notes from her too! We worked on mapping out some of their route while all the kids played and made tents to sleep in the backyard.

My kids were in heaven! I would never just let them sleep in the backyard so this was a real treat!

So, in the morning after my husband took off in a hurry left for work we had a house with 3 moms and 16 kids!

Crazy Fun!

These women are brave, I tell you! That's Jen with the pretty long blonde hair...can you imagine traveling with all those kids? They are true Supermoms!

But....don't get me wrong, since they left I got to thinking, hmmmm...maybe I could take a roadtrip after the baby is born if my husband can't take off long periods of time.....any mom out there crazy enough to go with me???

My kids are dying to take a roadtrip!

31 weeks.....