I just got back from an amazing time in Texas with some blog friends:)
I felt like I got back from a retreat, all pumped and encouraged....I'll post some pictures and talk about that later.
I just had to share about a phone call I got. I seem to always be the friend that gets called when one of my friends finds out their pregnant. It's funny, I have the privilege of knowing before the family most of the time. Maybe because my friends KNOW that I will be thrilled at the announcement of a new baby!
The mother tells me the great news that she is having another baby. She wants someone to rejoice with her, but she is too scared to tell her parents or in-laws etc. They are likely to either throw a fit or ask, "do you know what causes that?"

Why is there such an aversion to the prospect of life?
Of course, once the little baby comes, all the grandparents will love the baby. Who can resist a sweet baby? But why do they, all the other ill-wishers, (and believe me there are many) put up every opposition at the contemplation of the child being born? Why have we assimilated the anti-child philosophy of this world? Or the 1-2 child per family.... Are we so easily squeezed into the molds of this world?
I can expect this attitude from those who don't acknowledge God, but it causes my heart to ache when I find it is the attitude of those who own the name of the Lord.
So, if your pregnant and what someone to rejoice with you, just call me up! I will be sure to scream and holler with excitement!

First of all, Happy Mother's Day to all my friends out there!

I am getting a little Mother's Day break and thought I'd pop in to say hi!

This blog is such an outlet amidst the lovely chaos that surrounds me:)

It's nice to visit with you and read your comments...

I know my posts are pretty irregular lately, I just desire to never neglect my husband or children in order for me to post. These days seem so busy it's hard to fit blogging time in too.

So thanks for still checking in with us once in awhile:)

I know it's Mother's Day and I'm still posting on Easter, oh well.....

Here's the kids on Easter Sunday. I always make sure to stop and get a quick picture of the kids because I know if I wait until after church I will forget and everyone will be a mess by then.

What a slacker Mom I was this year...

No matching outfits!!!!!

My older three were thanking God I didn't torture them in trying to make everyone matchy matchy..

I just made sure everyone had their hair combed, teeth brushed and some what well groomed:)

They each picked a flower from the backyard to decorate the cross at church...

It was so cute to see all the little kids walking into church with their little flowers excited to put them up on the cross.

So, I'm 6 months (already)...look about 16 months :0

Not a big surprise to me. I always gain more than the average 20-30lbs they say you should gain. I had my doctors appointment a couple days ago and everything with the baby is looking great! She's growing healthy and cooking up nice in there:)

My doctor seems more worried about me getting my tubes tied than anything else. It's almost ridiculous how much both the nurse practitioner and my doctor push it. I've told them over and over that my husband if anything will be the one to get a vasectomy. They insist I get my tubes tied so that they know for sure I don't get pregnant again. I am waiting to see how my scar tissue is on delivery day before making any decisions.

The nurse told me that she just treated a lady last week that is pregnant with triplet boys after her husband had a vasectomy, when they tried to encourage her to have her tubes tied with her last c-section. I just looked at the nurse with a smile and said, "wow, what a blessing!"

I mean really, God must have wanted that lady to have 3 more boys! ha!

She looked at me like I was crazy then changed the subject and had to remind me about how much weight I gained in the last month...

I so wanted to tell her it was because I just got back from this amazing cruise and ate all this wonderful food.

Really though I have no idea how I gain so much. I'm really trying not to focus on myself. Yes, take care of myself and have a healthy pregnancy but not worry so much. The enemy sure likes to attack me in this area and steal my joy by focusing on my "looks" and I'm not going to allow that!

Why do I have to be so vain?!

My husband still makes me feel beautiful...so that's all that matters, right?:)

My Mom and sisters took the kids for us for the night a couple weeks ago. We went out on a date and enjoyed some alone time.

We are still trying to decide on an "F" name for our new daughter.

Our problem is agreeing on a name.

So at dinner, The Macaroni Grill where you can write on table clothes we listed a few "F" names and then our waitress gave us her opinion. Then she told other waitresses and busboys to come by and give their vote too. It made for a fun date.

Our waitress thought it was so cute we were out to dinner trying to come up with our new baby daughters name. She went on and on about how neat it is to be a Mommy and how much fun girls are...you should of seen the look on her face when I said, "this will be my 4th little girl!" She said, "Wow, really!" Then I went on to tell her that I had two boys as well.

We love our bragging privileges:)

My sisters even watched the kids for me the next day.



I went shopping for the baby and got a few things. It was such a nice day and I was so amazed at how many things I can get done. I felt like I could conquer the world when I woke up. ha!







I'm glad my kids were

entertainment for them as well. Here's a video I was sent while out shopping. LOL!

a pic from our dinner

We are still undecided on her name. So, if you have any suggestions on cute "F" names let me know:)

I spent Mother's Day weekend down by the beach. My paradise. Carlsbad. with my loves.......

Happy Mother's Day!

Faith gets baptized on Good Friday!

My Montage 4/13/11 at OneTrueMedia.com

Yesterday Farrah turned 4! Faith and I had fun making crafts and decorating her party. Farrah enjoyed her day sipping tea (apple juice), looking for fairies, dancing silly and giggling with girlfriends! Happy 4th Birthday Farrah Reese. Stop growing up so fast!!!!!

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

A Fun Mom? She Thinks So.....

The other day while doing my hair, Faith was in the bathroom watching me. She was waiting her turn to use the curling iron. She's into doing her own hair now. I figure it's time since I will have 3 other little girls to get ready:) It's still hard because I want to dress her and do her hair the way I want to;)

Anyway, while doing my hair she out of the blue looked at me and said, "Mom, I can't wait to be a Mommy. You look like your having so much fun being our Mom." I think that was the best compliment I have even been given! I'm not always the nicest Mom and I'm sure glad she can see past all the stress that comes from raising kids:)

I just looked at her and said, "I love being a Mommy, I'm having the time of my life raising all you kids!"

I'm sure her comment had something to do with the tricks I played on them for April Fools:)

We had a picnic and I brought out Kool Aid. A rare treat.

The kids were excited......

Who wants Kool Aid?????

After a sip they all just looked at me like ewwwwwww...

Even Finley got mad and spit it out. haha

It was just water with red food coloring:)

I also stuffed the boys shoes with tissue so it was hard for them to get on in the morning.

My favorite trick was this...

Lately, every morning after Daddy leaves for work the kids crawl into bed with me and we watch a little cartoons and snuggle before we have to get up. This morning I got up early and went downstairs. I stuffed the blankets with pillows and stuck a little piece of blond hair out of the blankets. (I cut myself bangs again) They all came in bed and thought I was sleeping until Austin tried to wake me up and realized I wasn't there! Hahaha....

Don't think the kids didn't try teaming up against me with little tricks...

Landen kept going all week thinking he could play tricks on me. I had to let him know that it's only one day a year! April Fools doesn't last the whole month of April... It's now April 11th and he's still saying, "April Fools!"

Time to move onto Easter..........

I love how excited he looks in this picture.

"He is not here, for he has Risen!"

Landen's bible verse this week.

We went on an Easter egg hunt with a new homeschool group...

Finley had her big brother to help her....

They found lots of eggs.....

Farrah has been doing a lot of the same work Landen does...she loves to learn! Landen, not so much...he's just going to be a sign twirler he said. Lord help me!

After the kids said their memory verses they nailed them to a cross...

After months of hard work Landen and Faith performed in their musical!

Once Upon A Time Shop!

Landen looking cute as a little orphan boy....

Faith "Emma" singing her heart out!

The cast!

Each cast member did head shots all smiling and looking cute. As I looked on the board for my kids..........I see this:

Yep, that's my little sign twirler. *sigh!

We had a couple of hot days so these little ones enjoyed their new mini pool... (gosh, I miss our"real" pool!) Come this Aug. when I'm a big sweaty swollen blimp, I'm really going to miss it! I might just have to plop myself in here and pray nobody can see me!!!

Austin worked on his kiddie pool garden....It's doing good so far, but not sure how it will work out???

We had Great Grandma over and surprised her with a birthday party.

The 3 princesses...

This is my husbands grandma. Isn't she cute?

The Grandparents and Auntie came out to watch Landen and Faith perform.

Proud parents with their two stars after their 3rd performance that day!

We threw a little party for our 2 favorite cast members.....

They love the stage!

Gender Party!

On Tuesday my sisters threw me a "Gender Party!"

One sister stayed with all the kids while the other sister took me to get an ultrasound.... I just don't understand why I'm gaining so much weight??? ha! My sister Brenda hasn't seen an ultrasound before so this was a real treat for her. The Snickers she got me, to try and get the baby moving was a real treat for me too!:) There's our baby on the screen. Head is on the left side and feet are closest to me:) They made me promise I wouldn't look at the screen when it was time to look at the gender of the baby. Gosh, it was hard not to take a little peek! The ultrasound tech took some pictures and put them in a sealed envelope. At this point only the ultrasound tech knew what we were having! My sister didn't know either.... While we were out getting my ultrasound and some yummy lunch my sister, Brianna was back at her house decorating with help from the kids.... My sweet friend from Texas, Tara at Too Many Kids in the Bathtub sent me a box of goodies last week. It was filled with all the decorations needed to have a gender party! Along with a diaper cake and all! Here's the pink table! Thank you Tara!!!!!!

The blue table!

My sister Brianna made the cute sign. Everything looked so cute! We have never made a big deal when we found out the gender our babies, so this was different and exciting! My sisters then drove the secret envelope over to our friend Ashlynn's house. Ashlynn(who has a new great adoption blog) then opened the envelope and added either pink or blue candies to the insides of the cupcakes. She then frosted the tops and brought them over for the party. So now, only the ultrasound tech and Ashlynn (who is like a sister to all of us) know what we are having.......

Before biting into the cupcake.....hmmmm will it be blue or pink????

Will the blue team or pink team win???

Girls win! We will be having another girl:)

Daddy is still in shock! He keeps saying 4 girls, 4 girls, oh my gosh! haha....Landen is mad at God, and Austin is cool with it:)

I love my girls and can't wait to add another one...All our girls are Daddy's girls, so Justin is thrilled to have another little girl look up to him and adore him.

Farrah was excited to see pink in her cupcake too!

For all my friends who have asked for a belly shot...I set the camera up on the kitchen counter, then waddled over to get in position....here ya go!

I'm 19wks and a couple days here. Bigger than I'd like to be but trying not to concentrate on that. I am just really thankful to be able to carry this baby and I pray SHE continues to grow healthy in that oven of mine!

I have many friends who are having a hard time trying to get pregnant, have had miscarriages and I am having a hard time posting on all my happy baby news. I really don't want to hurt their feelings......Please pray for them and especially my dear friend Laurel at Our Journey of Faith.

She is going through a miscarriage right now:(

I don't mean to end this fun post on the down side...Just know that I am praying for each one of them. I also realize more than ever what a blessing and gift each baby is!

The last 2 weeks.......

we've been keeping busy!

Being busy is making this pregnancy seem to go by fast.

I can't believe I'm about half way already!

Austin attended "Night in a Box."

He's been helping out at the homeless shelter by our house.

A group of jr. high students spent the night in cardboard boxes to experience what it would be like to live on the street.

It helped him understand the tragedy of street children around the world.

He even put a cross on his "house."
He said he got cold and hungry during the night and couldn't imagine living like that!
He's been studying India, Liberia, Brazil and Romania's "street kids" and reading many stories about their life. How they breath solvent based glue at young ages just to kill their hunger pains etc. Breaks my heart!

Aunt Brianna came with me to drop Austin off for the night. She made sure he had a warm place to stay.

Austin also helped build loft houses for children in Mexico the next morning...

The kids woke up to some green treats and a silly string mess on St. Patty's day.

Then we had green milk and Lucky Charms for breakfast.

We got on our green gear and headed to a St. Patrick's party at the park...





Everyone wearing green....

Finley is throwing a fit because I wouldn't let her have a cupcake....tragic, I know..geesh!


We even painted our nails green...ta-da...

Helping themselves to the green treats....

Mardi Gras...not that we celebrated but I thought this pic of the girls was cute anyway:)

We had P.E. at the Gym....

Landen showing off his cartwheels...



Big sister help...
Big brother help....
I love how close all my kids are. Even though there is an age gap they are all close.

I'm thankful for homeschooling and the fact that my kids are always together.

My baseball studs after Saturdays games....
This season I cheer for the Boston Red Sox and the Texas Rangers!

We finally finished our model of the Tabernacle!

Here's Landen painting the lamp stand.

Austin working on the Ark of the Covenant...

his finished Ark of the Covenant. Those cherubim angels weren't easy to make out of clay...

The kids followed the instructions given in the bible...here's the inside of the Ark of the Covenant along with Aaron's staff, a gold jar of manna and the stone tablets with the Ten Commandments on them.

Here's the Holy Place with the lamp stand, altar of incense and the table of the presence...

The courtyard...
Faith made the washbasin a little large the priest would have to climb up it to wash. ha! She did a great job other than that. She also made the altar of burnt offering and painted them with brown because we didn't have a bronze color.

They did a great job! It was an amazing project to do together.
I loved watching the kids frequently referring to the Bible to be sure they were "making it right." We learned so much and had fun doing it!

When Daddy got home the kids gave a full presentation on the Tabernacle and explained the various rituals and what possible meaning they could have for us today. They talked Daddy through what each room was and the measurements etc...
While building the Tabernacle these two kept busy being princesses...

Maybe we do need some socialization....

I'm kidding...I sometimes think we are over socialized!

Here's Landen with his piggy bank of hard earned allowance.

He's donating it to a bake sale for Japan.

The kids have seen pictures and the news on what is going on in Japan. Our hearts break for them. They got all their money together and I drove them down to donate to the bake sale put on by one of our homeschool groups.

I think that about sums up our last 2 weeks around here....

Oh, and here is the bun baking away....

All stretch out in there!

Hi bloggy friends...do you think I'm a boy or a girl???