Month in Review: March

Art by Pellie

I’m afraid, to be honest, this was not the best month we’ve ever had. There were not too many days when I was feeling real great and you know how it goes- if Momma’s not well... 

But there were some highlights:)

A Special Announcement

{A little trip back to August, 2011}

A Bad Way to Tell your Husband you are Pregnant with Baby #5

Upon confirmation that I was pregnant for the 5th time I agonized over how to tell Joshua. I’ve never made any fanfare over how I tell my husband the test was positive. Before it has usually been in the mornings when I gently waken him with my whispered, life-changing announcement. This time I wanted to find the perfect way and time to tell him. He gave me a good opportunity one day in the kitchen when the subject of how to do this very thing came up. Should have told him then, but it didn’t seem perfect. I wanted to come up with some clever, memorable, even pinterest-worthy way to share this significant news. Something more special and profound than “So... I’m pregnant.” But it was a busy time of year and I just couldn’t seem to figure out the amazing way I was going to make this special announcement.

So I waited.

I ended up telling him in the worst way possible. Well, it was at least a pretty bad way.

We were traveling to Clinton, LA for the 175th Anniversary of the church where Josh’s dad had been pastor of for several years. For the first time ever I was going to see the place of my husband’s childhood. It was August and blazing hot. The morning we were to leave something went wrong with the van- after it was packed up for the trip. Several hours, and a trip to the mechanic, later we were on our way again, starting an 11+ hour drive that would put us arriving at our destination much later than we had intended.

The whole family made the trip to Clinton, LA!

Month in Review: February

Well, February has drawn to a close. For being the shortest month of the year, it sure seems pretty full looking back on it. 

Here are some “highlights” from our February 2013

1st Mommy gets to go to “girls night” at her friend Beth’s house. She steals a very cute mug in the mug-exchange game (& feels a tiny bit guilty), but it’s part of the game:)

2nd Pancake breakfast, haircuts, a trip to the “red” park & mommy does babysitting for date-exchange

3rd 1st Sunday Fellowship meal at church, Life group immediately after meal since it is “super bowl Sunday”. Daddy makes bacon & jalapano wrapped chicken & we go to Grandpa & Grandma’s to watch the super bowl. More about that weekend here

6th One of the children sleep-walks & uses the vacuum as a potty. It does kind of look like a toilet. We cleaned it really, really well (or Joseph wouldn't be near it in this pic)

Our Weekend

This week I'm joining in the weekend link up fun with Mary Beth over at Annapolis & Company.

This is my first attempt so I'm starting simple, just going with 3 things we did this past weekend.

Here goes...

Laundromat Fun

    An experience is what you make of it

Mommy truth: if the dryer is going to break, it's going to break when you are already behind on the laundry. Well, more behind than usual. Also, it will probably happen when your husband is out of town for work for a week. At least, that is what happened to us:-) My mother-in-law graciously dried a few loads for me, but not wanting to overwhelm her household with too much of our laundry I opted for a trip to the Laundromat today. 

The Laundry Crew

Now, this could go one of two ways: It could be miserable. Or it could be an “experience”.

1st Family Christmas Vacation, the end

Part 4

   Notable Quotes & Moments from the trip

Kids on a wall

Quotes

 Josh "Boy, you'd better not pee on me!" (there are not many bathrooms along the Indian Nation Turnpike)

Jonas: "Why would they have a garage over the water" (he had spotted a boat house with a door that did make it look like a garage)

Jonas again: "I'm hungry momma, I really am" (we picture Roly from 101 Dalmatians when he says that)

Josiah: "how many hairs are UPON my head?"

No Fear

Sweet Girl

Moments

Josiah almost drowning in the wave pool 

Josh realizing he had forgotten his swimsuit

Slides being pitch black at night

Parent & child sliding down the big slide together in the double tube

One child wanting to play every sport/game perfectly the first time & pouting when it didn't happen

Kids getting hole-in-ones on the putt-putt course

Mommy vs Daddy in tether ball. Mommy cheated.

Watching HGTV extreme homes

Biggest poop ever by Joseph, all the way up to the neck 

Jonas turning on the jets in the tub when the water level was too low

Kids practicing violin pieces for recital on Saturday

Super green smoothies

Petra, just being precious. Most of the time. 

Playing the ABC signs game on the drive

Ice Cream on the couch!

Stroller Vs. Stairs

Beautiful Smile!

Loves her Daddy

Not quite in the picture-taking mood

Other than the usual challenges of traveling with 5 children ages 7 mo-9 (they just don't behave perfectly-imagine! & the 7 month old doesn't really have the sleep thing down yet), it was a great trip! Very ready to be out of this confined space (the van) and back in our home-sweet-home!

Home to our tree!

  

1st Family Christmas Vacation, Part 3

Part 3

   Serendipity Stops

Some of my favorite vacation memories are stops that were not "planned", things we did either because we chose to stop or because we had too (car trouble, bathroom break, etc). They were serendipitous stops. We made one of those stops this trip in Sulphur Springs, TX. We have driven through that community more than once and each time were struck by the beauty of the courthouse and town square. We decided to stop there on the way home for lunch and I'm glad we did. We enjoyed a walk around the square, a closer look at the beautiful court house, a fierce game of giant checkers, photo opps, a quick look in a few shops, & an impulse purchase of 4 used children's books from a used books-and other things-store (children's books are a weakness of mine). The town center is very charming with most of the old buildings in use or being renovated. To add to the experience, everything was decked out for Christmas and the season's music played to us from speakers on the lampposts. Our last stop was The Pioneer cafe, located in one of the old buildings not far from the town square. It served good southern home cooking. We split plates of the specials-country fried steak & catfish, along with broccoli & cheese casserole, mashed potatoes, sweet potato, green beans (sadly, they were out of okra), cornbread, rolls, hush puppies & sweet tea. Even tough we were stuffed, the owner convinced us to try her bread pudding, a recipe she had gotten from New Orleans. My goodness! Surely this recipe can convince even the non-bread pudding eater to change their ways. Delicious! 

The Beautiful Courthouse

Checking out the Chessboard before moving on to Checkers

Photo Opp!

Soul Food!

And then we left Sulphur Springs & took a happy memory with us. 

1st Family Christmas Vacation, Part 2

Part 2 

   What we did there

We own a timeshare. I'd like to say as little as possible about that. I'll just say we purchased it many years ago & that there are pros & there are cons. Since we do own it, we consider it good stewardship to make use of it and we did on this trip. 

We stayed in a two bedroom unit with a living room & tiny kitchen. We purchased food for all the meals we would need from a local grocery store. We also made a trip to the specially meat store where Klifton's mother Lavenia (Josh's sister Joanna's  mother-in-law) works to say "hello!" and purchased a crawfish stuffed chicken while we were there. 

We spent the majority of the first day at the indoor water park at the resort. It has a kids area, lazy river, wave pool & -my favorite- slides! The babies took naps while we were there. After an early supper, Josh and the big three went back until closing time and had the place to themselves! 

A good treat to end the day with was popcorn & hot chocolate:-) 

Day two we decided to do some other activities. We tackled mini golf, tennis, & shuffleboard. We took some games back to our unit & introduced the kids to Sorry & Skip-Bo. We wrapped up the day with a trip to the more rustic part of the resort for some tether ball, a walk out on the pier & even braved part of a nature trail. We finished up the day with that stuffed chicken and fresh spinach. It was delicious and there were no leftovers! 

Content to watch

Nature Trail

Super Yummy Supper!

Pellie likes to make sure Mommy & Daddy are in the pictures. This is one of her shots.

Day three was pack-up & head home day. We did make one stop before we left the resort to try & feed the squirrels, "peanut" specifically, but they didn't cooperate. 

Where is Peanut & his friends?!?

1st Family Christmas Vacation, just us :-)

Part 1

It's logistically challenging, traveling with several young children. I'm usually surprised at the amount of work it takes to get us off and going on a trip. And this one did not even require us taking our own bedding or towels. I packed with this thought in mind "take as little as possible", and it still seemed to be an almost insurmountable task!


But we were off!

Josh & I had planned and executed part 1 of our first ever surprise Christmas family vacation! At ages 9 & under the kiddos were fairly content to head off on a trip knowing nothing about our destination, and they didn't seem to realize that there were suitcases in the back. Hee hee. They would be thrilled to learn we were headed to Texas. They seem to think Texas is a pretty amazing place, probably because of the memory associations of a few past trips there. When you ask Jonas what he wants to do when he grows up he says he and Josiah will own a ranch in Texas. Anytime the possibility of a trip comes up they say "Let's go to Texas!" Well, we were on our way and they had no idea. It's one of the fun parts about being a parent :-)

Many hours later...we made it!

Experiences of Christmas

Christmas is more than one day, it’s a whole season and it happens to be my favorite :-) While we all look forward to the fun of gifts, Josh & I want to focus on the experience of Christmas with our young family, this year more than ever. After all, that’s where the lasting memories will be made. I do remember several special gifts from childhood Christmases, but mostly I remember the experiences, the traditional activities my family participated in year after year. Now, we are attempting to go very easy on the budget this year and the nice thing about activities during the Christmas season is that so many of them are free! Saturdays are daddy’s day off, so this morning (armed with PB&J, chips, water & diaper bag) we headed out for some Christmas experiences.

First stop was Lowe’s Build & Grow. This is one of our year-round favorite activities, but for Christmas it’s extra special. It takes a bit of patience, but it’s worth it!

Getting started!

Even the littles can hammer

Well, maybe not the youngest

Making progress!

It's important for parents to be in some of the pics- even if you have to photo bomb :-)

A good tip- label while still at the store!

We had to stop to look at books on the way out

All done!

After Build & Grow we headed to Bass Pro, enjoying our delicious PB&J lunch on the way. This was our first family trip to the store since moving to Oklahoma and it is definitely an experience, especially at Christmas! 

There were A LOT of people there!

Craft table!

Finished!

Waiting their turn to race the cars. Love the joy on the faces!

Content to watch

Momma and the babies

Lots of opportunities for shooting things. It is Bass Pro after all :-)

Lots of photo opps

It was time to get some tired children, complete with happy memories, home. 

This is my first EVER blog post and it is all due to my friend Emily Netz. She has inspired me to start on this blogging journey. I will be linking up this post to her Christmas link party. Thank you Emily!