New Job Update

I have been working for almost four months now and I must say that although I had serious doubts about working outside the home it is working out well. I work in an office with developmentally disabled clients doing paperwork mostly. I only have to come twice a week (10 hour days) to get in my hours, so I am home with the kids as much as I can be. I wake up extra early while they are still asleep so I can get home before it is very late to spend time with them. My aunt who is homeschooling my cousin and happens to live two doors down offered to take ;my oldest two on the days I am working so that they don't get behind in their studies. She does math and spelling with them for the whole week in those two days and that leaves me to do Bible, reading, english, science, handwriting, and history the other three days. We double up two days and then on Fridays just do one lesson in each. Although I am still extremely exhausted I am not miserable like I thought I would be. It is nice to get away from the house a bit and it makes me appreciate the time I do have with my kids. I don't feel as if I am neglecting them and my job is only ten minutes away. My coworkers are nice and my boss is a joy to work for. I guess God knows what he is doing afterall!! I am still learning over and over to just put all my trust in him. He is always there for me and has the best life in mind for me. I praise him for all my blessings once again. :)

"The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned."
1 Corinthians 2:14 ESV

Life Flashing By

Life has really been going by soo quickly lately. Everything that I need to get done is slowly piling up. Hopefully by some miracle I will be able to get it all done before surgery time.
We just took another trip to St Louis for a wedding this time instead of doctor appointments and stayed with my baby sister there. Her new baby boy is just about a month old. It gives me baby fever for about a nanosecond and then I remember sleepless nights and all the diapers and think I can hold off for a bit longer ;) I am seriously starting to look into adoption though. I have always wanted to do this but am too poor to afford it just yet. I do want to get the process started though so I know where we stand and can look to the future. I would love to give one of these little blessings from God a home. I could take all the babies as long as I didn't have to physically have them. I am getting too old for pregnancy during the last pregnancy I was 31 and felt like I was 100!! Maybe everything will work out and number six will be coming along soon :) (that is as soon as I get caught up and get through this surgery and become rich and... lol

Family Updates

Hello All, I have not been able to communicate often because life has totally overtaken me lately. We are entering a new season in life and I for one am thrilled. The nice fall weather has been helpful too :) I thought since it had been a while I would give you all updates on what each family member has been up to lately.

Darling-10 has been accomplishing so much this year as a big fifth grader! She is becoming a young lady and although this time of life isn't always the most enjoyable years as a mother I am proud of her and am glad to get to watch her grow up. She is a great big sister (most the time) and helps me run the household as well as take care of all her brothers. She has been asking me to adopt her a sister her age lol. She misses having friends around as she is now middle school age and social activities are getting more important. She sings and is interested in becoming a musician. We aren't currently enrolled in any activities as our dear swim teacher passed away and our piano teacher moved :( We will be finding something hopefully cheap for her soon. She has been a godsend. I don't know what I would do without her!

Tenderheart-8 is busy being busy lol. He is constantly distracted by anything which makes homeschooling with little ones running round very difficult and time consuming. He is super sweet and as his name implies has a very tender heart. He is now in third grade and is doing great. Multiplication and division hit this year and he is flying through it. He is usually nice to his brothers and helps them out whenever he can without having to be asked. He is interested in taking some form of karate this year and if funds are available we will enroll him and probably all the kids. Hopefully this helps him get some energy out during the winter months when we will be inside more.

Wild Thing-5 is as always a handful. He is constantly into something and has been my biggest challenge. He is supposed to be homeschooling this year for kindergarten but I am hoping if I give him a little time to mature he will be capable of sitting still long enough to learn something. So, we are only doing school with him a couple days a week. He also has allergies and asthma so this keeps us on our toes because he is constantly breaking out in rashes or having trouble breathing and of course he won't stay away from the things that bother his allergies.  He climbs, jumps, fights, and is always covered in dirt. I didn't know what having a true boy was like until he came along. As slight as he is he is the biggest personality in the family :)

Hoss-3 just started Pre K this year and he is the biggest kid there. I pray that he won't be a bully as he tends to be when he is at home at times. He is two years younger than Wild Thing but uses his size to get his way. Poor little Wild Thing doesn't have a chance to win a fight against him. He is very smart and extremely quick to learn new things. I will probably school him along with Wild Thing and let them learn together next year. He is either super sweet or super naughty. There is no in between with him. He is always hungry and has been busted many times under the kitchen table with some type of food he discovered left within his long reach scarfing it down. He has eaten half of a cake before!!


Sweet Cheeks-1 is gearing up for his second surgery. He will be about 18 months old when that takes place. He has a very laid back personality and is very sweet. He loves to get kisses and loves all of his siblings. Needless to say he is very spoiled and almost always gets his way. If mommy says no somebody else will do it for him :) Although he is over a year old he refuses to quit nursing which makes it difficult for me to work ten hour days. So he has reverted back to getting most of his meals throughout the night which is starting to catch up with me because I haven't gotten a good nights sleep since he was born!! HE is getting really close to walking and will be trying to keep up with his brothers soon. As for now I am just trying to enjoy the cute baby stage because it is way to fleeting.

Our family is so truly blessed. I feel so lucky to be born in the USA and to be able to have this great family with hardly ever a "real" worry. Praise God for his many blessings on me!!

That the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.   Galatians 3:14 (NKJV)

Sweet Cheeks First Birthday Photo Session



My wonderful aunt shot some pictures for me for Sweet Cheeks first birthday. We got these gems in about a half hour session out in my front yard. Although none of these are touched up yet I am more than pleased!! Check her out at "Shoot Me" Photography.  Enjoy!

what's a lil boy without a baseball :)

had this lil diaper cover made on etsy sooo cute!



 

"one" just learned this :)



waving to mommy

  

this is his sock monkey that we did his party around

 

 

you can see how his forehead protrudes and the top of his head is pointed









Sweet Cheeks birthday and craniosynostosis appt

Hello all,
       I have been busier than a bee in a flower patch lately. I have been working my butt off in all areasof life: working, babysitting more, and sewing for custom orders, not to mention 1 husband, five kids, and a dog :). Needless to say I am totally exhausted. I wanted to inform of Sweet Cheeks updates:
       He turned one!!! Yay!! We threw a big outdoor sock monkey party for him at our campground because unlike the other kids I am very well aware how blessed we are to still have our little man in our lives. They all had parties too but this one was special to my heart because at one time we weren't sure what may happen and I realize that if he had been born anywhere else he may not be here right now. For his party, we made a color coordinating candy table. All the candy on it was red and browns to go with sock monkey colors (red hots, connamon disks, suckers, root beer barrels, twizzlers, etc) and I added some coke in glass bottles because they seem to fit the era and theme as well. I also made his monkey cake myself - I used a squre pan and then added a circle on top for the face and cupcakes along the sides for the ears and used the cut off top to make the cake flat for the hat and mouth. It turned out really cute! Tenderheart helped me make "Monkey Munchies" which is a cookie recipe in a quart jar to give out to guests and we put matching fabrics on the llids and tied them on with suede ties. It really ended up super cute although it was extrememly hot! He got to eat cake and ice cream and made a huge mess as every first birthday should be :) I will try to remember to attach some pics later.
       We also hit his six month post op date and so had a dr appt. Unfortunately the dr believes that we need to do a second surgery for the front of his head :(. The last one was only from his ears back and this one will be from his ears up. The measurments from right after surgery to now showed that his head has narrowed again since his last surgery and has also became more pronounced on his forehead. The best way to describe it is cro-magnon ish. We have to get the surgery in the next couple of months because if we wait til his head isn't growing as much they say he won't heal as well and the results won't be as nice. Please keep him inyour prayers!!
    Well I have a lot of other stuff going on but not time to talk now... it's off to work I go!!

11 Month old Sweet Cheeks

My beautiful little baby boy is now 11 months old!! How time flies. It seems like last week I was in the hospital begging for the epidural (I only had it with the last 2 kids, but with his head shape from the craniosynostosis I was in some major pain trying to get him out). Sweets is now crawling and pulling up on things trying to get into stuff. He says several words like dada and mama. He is also doing some baby sign language. He knows the sign for "more" and is learning the ones for "milk" "mama" and "dada". He has six teeth and is has an absolutely adorable smile. He greets me every morning with that sweet smile and helps me get up on those days when I really don't wanna.  He leans in to give me lovins and kisses and is unfortunately also learning a few bad things like slapping people's faces :o  Oh, how quickly they learn to be naughty! I am anxiously awaiting his appointment next month with his plastic surgeon and neuro surgeon so we can see if they think he is going to need the second surgery. It is weighing on my mind lately and the closer it gets the more nervous I am about it. Not sure if this little mama can handle that again. He took it like a real trooper and was so much stronger than I, I am so proud of my lil' man and am looking forward to all the things we are going to get to go through together in this all too short life, good and bad. Motherhood has been such an honor and a blessing in my life. I try never to take it for granted that I have such a great, big, awesome family. I never thought I would have five kids, but now that I do I don't know what I would do without them. Praise God for knowing what is best when I obviously don't have a clue.

She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family and portions for her servant girls. She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard. She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks. Proverbs 31:15-17

Money Matters

I finally had time to do our bills and balance the checkbook. I haven't done it in a little over a month because I just didn't have the time. This is one thing that I have to do without interruption. Sweet Cheeks is usually hanging around my legs and the other kids are constantly needing something so while they were at Bible school and Sweets was asleep I took the opportunity to get this horrible job accomplished. This is almost always assuredly a fight waiting to happen because once I see all the money that is being spent at gas stations and the like I freak out because we are on a very limited income and with the new car we have no extra. It wasn't as bad as it typically is so I didn't feel the need to tear into Mr Railroad this time lol. I am sure he'll get it next month :) We are officially in the red by 60 bucks this month. Sooo if Mr Railroad gets any overtime that would be great... we'll have to see what happens. Otherwise, we will have to pay the ones that are necessary and hold of on less important bills. I am so sick of living this way, but it seems no matter how much money we make we always tend to overspend. This is a really bad habit we started when we moved in together right after high school and have never seemed to be able to break. I have heard that you are to pay off the lowest bill first and work your way up to the biggest ones so that is what the plan is for now. I have a few really low credit card bills that we could get paid off and then not be in the red, but would at least break even. I try to avoid thinking about the bills because it greatly stresses me out and Mr Railroad just avoids them altogether (besides racking them up of course- isn't that supposed to be the woman's job!). I am hoping to be debt free by 2013 (except the new car). If we buy nothing else and control ourselves at Christmas we will have a pretty good chance. So off to the store I go for the necessities (I always say a prayer before I shop that I will control my urges and only buy the items that we are in great need off and try to remind myself that we have 5 kids that will need to go to college- they usually go something like this: 

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you so much for your many blessings upon our lives. Please help us to remember how blessed we are and how much you care for us as we go about our everyday lives. Let us use that knowledge to praise you and to do the things in our lives that will reflect your light. Please give me the wisdom that I so desparately need to use our money in the best way that I know how. Watch over my children and bless them and help me to be the best parent that I can. Thank you, again! In Jesus Precious name, Amen

He who has no rule over his own spirit is like a broken down city without a wall. Proverbs 25:28