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???

Now back to our regular scheduled blogging...

I'm going to try anyway!
I miss blogging! If it wasn't for blogging the last 4 years, I don't think I would remember most of what we did. I love to look back at all the fun memories. Not to mention all the amazing friends I've meet through blogging. So.......I've decided to make it a point to at least blog once a week.



Where were we?.......

I think I left off on Valentines week...... This is a picture of my me and my Valentine. He had just walked in from a long day at work. Poor guy has been working so much, but we are so blessed that he has work!

You can see I'm all dressed up in sweats for my Valentine. I try to look nice for him when he gets home but by that time of night I'm beat!

The weather has been so nice lately. I love hot weather. I say this now but come Aug I'll be crying to you all when I'm swollen sweaty and about to pop!

We are enjoying playing outside more. Our new project is a kiddie pool garden.

I went out and got the kids some new spring clothes and sandals... and Slurpee's to make them behave:)

Baseball is in full swing! I feel like we live at the field. Here are some pictures of Landen's first game. I showed up about 20 minutes late. I was running around other kids. When I got there I saw him playing shortstop with a big wad of gum in his mouth. I'm not sure who gave him the gum, but he looked like a real ball player out there! He noticed me in the bleachers when he went up to bat. He looked at me and gave me a big thumbs up....oh, I love that kid!

This picture cracks me up. Do you see the boy playing in the dirt in the middle of a play?

Landen loves having his Daddy to help coach. Actually, since Daddy is working late now Austin is assistant coach for Landen's team during practice. Landen loves having his big brother to help too! It's a good learning experience for Austin to help as well! Daddy is mostly the assistant coach at the games.

Here's a picture of when Austin played T-ball!

Both my boys are #1:)

They look so much alike.

I'm still enjoying dressing Farrah for Ballet Farrah is still enjoying Ballet.

She just needs to learn to straighten her leg;)

big leap!

We are staying busy in school as well. Faith is studying the California missions. Here's us at the San Gabriel Mission.

My kids love for me to take pictures of them....

Here is Landen making a St. Patricks Day wreath for our front door.

He's doing it in a pattern and it's helped him to learn to almost tie his shoe.

Yay for busy work!

His finished product! He's so proud of himself. That's a lot of little knots for the little guy!

Oh, and I bet your wanting to know some baby news....... Here I am at 17 weeks!

Thank God, I am feeling much better!!!!

My hair is growing so fast (thank God!)....and so is everything else *sigh*

I love my belly bump, but seriously the back bump can stop growing already!

I finally had a doctors appointment and everything looks good. I love my new doctor! He was willing to listen to my concerns and we talked a lot about my options. They looked over my past medical records with my past 2 c-sections and will monitor me as I get farther along. My doctor would be willing to let me try a v-bac but my insurance won't cover me to deliver at the hospital that allows v-bacs. I'm delivering at a great hospital but they don't allow v-bacs there. So after a lot of prayer, I am going to be having my 3rd c-section.

Although, I would love to just deliver like Jodi Mockabee from the Bee Hive did...how she just gave birth v-bac in her own hallway!

How cool would that be...oh, whoops here comes baby. No recovery from surgery to deal with!

And.....is baby Ryan a boy or a girl?

Well, at my doctors appointment the baby was moving around so much we couldn't get a clear shot. The doctor said it's still to early to really tell.

Then we went in a couple days later to have a scan done at just one of those walk-in places. While looking at the screen I thought I saw a little pee pee. So did my husband and so did the kids...but the tech said it looked like a girl to her.

It was hard to tell...

I personally think it's still to early to tell 100%

I'll go back in at 20 weeks to take another peek and let you know for sure!

Either way boy or girl, it's hitting me now....I'm having another baby!

I'm going to be a Mommy of 6!