"I'm a very good cooker!"

"Mama, this is going to be the best supper ever!" I believe it just might be. After all, she is the self-proclaimed "very best cooker". ;)

Feet

We were leaving the house last week and Jericho wasn't wearing socks. Her buddy, Alex said she'd been wearing them earlier so I asked her, "Where did you take your socks off?"

She looked at me like I'd lost my mind and replied, "Off mine feet!!"

I still giggle every time I think of it. :) (And, yes, we're still working on pronoun usage. *grin*)

Phoenix

Happy 2nd birthday to my (not so) baby boy!

He weighs about 27 lbs.
He sucks his fingers (same ones I did as a child) nearly all the time.
He drinks independently from a cup.
His laugh is a deep-down belly laugh.
He doesn't talk much, but we've begun noticing more and more words in the last week or two.

Love you, little boy!!

Change of tune

And now it becomes, "All I want for Christmas is my three front teeth." :) When Levi knocked his two front teeth out last week, his two incisors were also loosened. The dentist said it was okay for him to go ahead and wiggle the loosest one out. Tonight we finally got it. The tooth fairy is going to go broke at this rate! LOL As a side-note, Levi asked tonight if I was the tooth fairy. I asked if he thought I was... he's not sure. ;)

Uneventful

Today was blessedly uneventful. After everything that happened this week it was a welcomed change. ;)

All he wants for Christmas

There was an "incident" yesterday...

I overslept (second time this week!!) but managed to get out of the house with TJ and get him to the clinic in time for his 9am well-child appointment just 23 minutes after I flew out of bed. While I was at the clinic I got a text with a photo from Tim.

Poor Levi slipped on a piece of paper on the kitchen floor and did a face-plant.

Those two front teeth were already loose, but a trip to the dentist eased my mind (there are two more teeth which are loose now but weren't before the fall).

He's also looking much better today! His lip is still a bit bruised and swollen. He's got a sense of humor about it though. He keeps making fun of his own lisp. ;)

So the story goes

Apparently their mother told them they had to wear short sleeves, but the kid in orange did not. :)

Drawing courtesy of Shiloh, age 5 1/2.

Helmet Needed

It's been a rough week for one little boy. Yesterday he fell off the table and cracked the back of his noggin. Today's oops was a bit more noticeable...

A Good Day

There have been so many times in the last weeks when I've thought, "I should blog about that!" Unfortunately, it never gets done.

Today was another one of those days. We spent the day at the Science Museum. Kids had fun and were well behaved. :)

We were all excited that our favorite babysitter (we consider her part of the family) was able to join us. She got married a few weeks ago and moved, so we don't get to see her as often as we'd like. Her hubby was even able to drive down after work and join us for supper.

TJ did really well. It seemed he really enjoyed it... :)

So much to update!

Too much, really...  I can not believe it has been a month since I last posted!  I am so rarely on the computer these days -- about once a week in fact.  I hope those of you who know how I lived on the computer not that many months ago were sitting down when you read that.  Wouldn't want you to hurt yourself when you fell over. ;)

This is far too brief, but it's what I have time for (and I don't have the patience to deal with whatever weird formatting issues blogger is throwing at me, so you get what you get...).

The birthday boy chose Granite City for his "date" with mom and dad.  The free birthday cookie was totally worth it! Hard to believe we now have TWO teens in the house!

The Lego that was extracted (surprise!) at a visit with the ENT that was meant to be a discussion about Shiloh's adenoids.  Now we wait for a few weeks to see if the snoring continues. (I'm certain it will... the child has snored since she was a baby.)

I believe these two are going to become quite the pair! :)  The both have great personalities, and already make each other laugh.  It's so fun watching Phoenix trying to take care of TJ.  They are tough to photograph because they are always moving!

This little bare bear butt makes me laugh. ;)

I could just eat up these pudgy little legs and toes!  Can't believe he's 5 months old...

We have monsters living at our house...

...and ninja's ;)

4

Still loves a good swaddle.
Giggles on occasion and smiles often.
Loves to be talked to and loves to "talk".
Wears mostly 6-9mo clothes.
Weighed 15#2 three weeks ago.

The Old Days

Levi, while viewing pictures from a few years ago said, "Mom, I miss the old days."

Yogurt

This is what happens when the yogurt runs out...

Want a puppy?

Can't have this one ;) He's all mine!

Heading Out

We are taking a field trip to the MN Zoo today. They have no idea... we just told them to get in the van. :)

Concentration

Using scissors takes a lot of concentration ;)

We have a problem...

My husband has the hots for the kid's teacher. ;)

The first day of school went great. No real hiccups outside of what I expected. TJ tried to interfere with our progress, but we managed. :)

It must have been okay... after supper Shi asked when we were going to do more school. When I told her we would tomorrow she said "awwwww!" as in "I wish we didn't have to wait so long!" :)

11:30pm

Apparently, 11:30pm is where it's at! First, just as we were settling in, Phoenix woke crying. He often does once a night. A drink from his cup and he's back off to dreamland. As Tim was dealing with him Tiberius woke to be nursed. He'd no sooner latched on when Jericho cried out. She put herself back to sleep, but when I was done nursing I did go up to check on her. Now, midnight, and I'm off to sleep. Praying for a great first day of school tomorrow. I did find it a bit ironic that the three that woke are the three who will not be actively participating in school tomorrow... ;)

Imbalance

You nursing moms know what I'm talking about... my baby slept 10 hrs last night! :) He's usually up every couple hours, and no less than twice. I could get used to this... but I really shouldn't kid myself. ;)

Entertaining

If you have access to a not-quite-night-trained child, might I suggest picking them out of bed, placing them on their feet, steering them to the bathroom, and setting them on the toilet? Truly entertaining. Comes with the added benefit of *usually* avoiding a load of laundry and a bath first thing in the a.m. ;)

School

Getting serious about prep/organization.

2 months + 2 weeks + 3 days =

Picnic

Perfect night for a picnic. Good thing too! The dining table is covered with this years school stuff. Time to get organized!

Shiloh Rides

Shiloh asked me several weeks ago to take off her training wheels.  Then the bike sat.  She would occasionally sit on the seat and try once or twice to get going, and then give up.

Last night after supper Chase came running in shouting, "You need to come see Shiloh!"  He'd worked with her for just a few minutes, and she was riding!  She is so proud. :)

I've been trying all morning to get the video to work, and I'm having issues... YouTube doesn't want to accept it, Blogger indicates it's loaded but then doesn't seem to "take".  So... if I can get the wrinkles ironed out, I'll have a video of her riding.  But, for now, here's a (not so great) picture:

Saturday

The project for today was a bike rack. All recycled materials, so it was free! A couple of nails to hang helmets and we're all set. :)

Food and Fellowship

With friends, meals are more fun. :)

13 kids (11 in the picture), and four adults makes life interesting.  It was so good to spend time with friends!

Blessed Coolness

I woke this morning to temps in the low 60's.  For the first time in weeks I was able to turn off the a/c and open windows.  Fresh air!  Ahhhhh

Tonight, temps are supposed to drop into the 50's.  I plan to enjoy this while it lasts, as it's supposed to be back in the 90's again next week.

Two excellent posts

I read two excellent posts on Pastor Matthew's blog today and wanted to share them here.  The first is a link to an article at Desiring God.  I would recommend that you watch the video, and then read the linked article.

http://molesky.me/2012/07/24/are-you-mom-enough/

The second post comments on an article from the Los Angeles Times.  I especially liked the conclusion made by the reporter.

http://molesky.me/2012/07/24/discipline-trumps-your-feelings/

Rolling Right Along

Tiberius rolled over from his belly to his back. I returned him to his belly, and he repeated the roll. 7 weeks old today. :)

It's too soon for this!

No more leaving this boy unattended on the couch!

He's 6 weeks old, and about 13 lbs.  I can't belive how much he's changed already!  I am so grateful to God for the gift of Tiberius.  Such a sweet addition to our home.

Size Doesn't Matter

Last year, the kids (primarily Chase I think) planted a couple of pumpkin seeds in random spots.  One plant is near the garage, the other in the compost bin.  The seed near the garage produced a very small plant.  The seed in the compost has the best soil, and has grown quite large.  However, here's the proof that size doesn't matter:

Tiny plant.
Beautiful flower.  Wonder how big the pumpkin will be?

Large plant!
Just one of those leaves is bigger than the other entire plant.  No flowers here though!

On another note... the tomatoes are prolific this year!  I'm wondering if the lack of deer eating our garden has anything to do with the floodlight on the backyard neighbor's garage?  At any rate, it's nice to have plants in the garden that aren't being eaten (by anyone but us *wink*).

This picture was taken a couple of days ago.  I thought there was an abundance of flowers then... today, there are infinitely more!  Amazing. :)  Good thing Phoenix loves tomatoes.  He'd eat them all day if we allowed. ;)  Snacks for him for the rest of the summer! LOL

No Replies

Thought I'd share this post from Karen at Sew Many Ways.

http://sewmanyways.blogspot.com/2012/07/no-replypublic-service-announcement.html

She talks shares how to change your blogger profile from a "no reply" status.  I know there are times when I'd love to reply to someone via email when they post a comment (especially when they ask a specific question!), but if your status is set to "no reply" I'm unable to do that.

Of course, it's possible you have your status set that way intentionally, and that's fine. :)  I, on the other hand, enjoy getting emails from some of the blogs that I comment on occassionally.

So there you have it...

Tiberius - Month One

Tiberius James is 1 month old! Boy, does time fly... I didn't even realize today was the one month mark until a friend mentioned it while we were texting this morning.  I'd been so focused on the crazy fact that he was 4 weeks old on Monday that I forgot all about the 1 month mark.  LOL

He truly is a joy.  He sleeps better at night than any of the last 3 kids have.  We usually get a couple of four hour stretches with an occasional 5 hour stretch. What a relief that is!  Over the weekend at Tim's mom's he smiled at me, at Grandma, and at Tim.  (Alex just peeked over my shoulder and chimed in with, "He smiled at me too!")

Finding his thumb - not sure if I condone this behavior. LOL

Brothers in matching outfits - Phoenix is often found sitting next to Ty rubbing the top of his head. :)

1 month old - chunking up nicely! *squeeze*

Is it possible?

I'm beginning to wonder if we moved to Texas and I just forgot...

Less than a week...

... these things grow like weeds!! (the plants, and the kids *wink*)

Hot

I don't do hot. Sure hope I survive the coming week!

Osmosis

I'm not sure this is the best way to get nutrients from your food... LOL

Thoughtful

The office staff at church often celebrates birthdays with a cake. Tim is no longer eating baked goods so they bought him a fresh fruit tray instead. :) How thoughtful!

Figuring it out

Still working on figuring out the best settings for posting from my phone to my blog... especially photos. If anyone has any tips, let me know!

It has been nice to snap a picture have the ability to share it quickly. I can even blog while nursing. ;) I'm less likely to forget things I want to share. Honestly, I don't get much time at the computer anymore (and I'm okay with that!) so the more I can do from my phone, the better!

Time's up! More later. :) Hope you are enjoying your summer as much as I am!

Sunshine Girl

Shiloh and her sunflowers.

Elasti-Girl

I couldn't quite reach my water bottle (I was nursing the baby and couldn't get up easily). I made a comment to Victory that I needed to be Elasti-Mom so I could reach. She replied that she would like to be Elasti-Girl... then she could lick her forehead. LOL

I don't think I've ever thought once in my life that it would be handy to have the ability to lick my forehead...

Bikes

Tim took up biking this spring and really enjoys it. Now I can go with him!

A Different Dynamic

We dropped Alex & Chase off at camp yesterday.  As we were saying our good-byes their counselor said, "Enjoy your week off!"  Week off... HA! ;)  I pointed to Tiberius, snug in the sling and told him, "This one is number 8... and (pointing to Alex and Chase) I just left my two big helpers with you..."  He looked at me for a moment (stunned silence.  LOL) and replied, "Well... um... good luck then!"  LOL

What I didn't tell him was that helper #3 was not coming home with me either.  Victory is at "Camp Grandpa & Grandma" for the week.  That leaves me with the 6 and under crowd.  In and of itself five kids, ages 6 and under, is not a big deal.  However, when one of those five is a nursing newborn, one is a testing 18 mo old, and a third is a trying 3.5 year old...  well, it's interesting.

I plan on trying to use this week to do some training with the younger ones.  It's time to pass a couple jobs down the line.  So far, Shiloh is doing great with loading the dishwasher.  And, this morning, without being asked, she put a diaper on Jericho.  It took her a while, but once she got it on it was perfect!

I'm also trying to do a "reset" for my days.  I typically wake up when the kids do or earlier, but seldom get out of bed right away.  I do my devotions before getting out of bed (less interruptions!!) and spend time snuggling with random kids as they wander in.  This week, I have to get up.  Someone has to get them breakfast! ;)  When the big kids are all home again, I'm hoping to stick with it!  I think our days will go more smoothly, and again, I'll be able to focus on some better training with the older kids AND youngers.

The good news?  I've survived 1/2 of day one.  LOL

As a side-note, it's amazing how much cooler the house stays with three less bodies in it!  On a day like today the air would typically be running on hi and still wouldn't quite keep up with keeping the house cool.  Today, it's on low, and the indoor temp is lovely! ;)

First S'more

*edited because I realized the photos don't stay in the order I post them when posting from my phone...