Candle By Night

Miss SweetS joined our family on July 10th around 1:30 in the morning. She weighed 9 lbs 6 oz. (she beat the other children out by almost a whole pound!) My only baby to come in the middle of the night, but what a blessing! Sweet E, Little E, and Special K slept through the whole thing. Big T was the secondary birthing coach. He would time my contractions and hold my hand when Beloved had to step away for a minute. He also kept a sharp eye out for the midwife. It was so cute to watch him. He was like a first time father. ;-) It was so sweet. Timing my contractions All the children are in love with SweetS. Every morning they all pile into bed with me and fight over who gets to hold her first. She has stolen everyone's heart. I should also add that the girls won! There was a great debate in our home on which gender would win out. Looks like the girls are dominating the house! That's okay. Little E has enough energy to equal about 3 boys. :-) One tired Mama and Baby Gir...

It's hard to believe that we are already under a month till we get to meet our newest blessing. In some ways time seems to fly right on by and in others.....well, it seems to drag on forever! :-) A year ago I found out I was pregnant (the day after Father's Day) and was so excited. Little did I know that less than a month later I would find out that we had lost that blessing. God's timing is amazing. Here we will be celebrating a new life a year after loosing one. Talk about a mixed bag of emotions to be going through! As for this pregnancy in general, it has been much harder than my others. Just different things to deal with that I haven't dealt with before. I won't go into detail (save you from TMI) but I have been uncomfortable for the past month. Usually I can deal with the end of pregnancy pretty well. This time it hurts to stand, sit, lay down, etc. I just can't stay comfortable for very long. How I wish this little one would come even a week early, b...

I have looked at this blog for months now with just no inspiration to write anything. Life just started to happen and it seems that I just lost my motivation for a lot of things. And this blog (and our school one) was one of the things to be pushed to the side. If you look at the archives I went from having 3-5 posts a month to only 1 around July. July was the month when I new something was going wrong with my last pregnancy and the writing disappeared after that. I reread this post from the fall and cried all over again.  This morning I remembered why I started this page. I started it so family and friends could keep up with the kiddos and see what the family was up to. I am going to do my best to get back to that place of sharing more. To start off with Beloved started a new job a month ago. Sadly it's in Downtown Columbus. The drive home is not very fun for him at all (especially this time of year with no air conditioning) . BUT.....he loves his job! It's a good enviro...

I can honestly say that I will not miss 2011. We had good times, but we had so many ups and downs I am ready for the start of a new year. I just wanted to let you all know that we are doing fine. We have a lot going on. Somethings I want to talk about but can't yet. And then there are somethings that I can talk about but they need to wait. All I can say is...the waiting game is no fun.  So anyway, I pray you are all having a wonderful December and I hope to be able to update you all very soon!

It's a very special day. Special K is now two years old! It's amazing how fast two years fly on by. She is my adorable, sweet, and lovable baby girl. I am so blessed to be her Mama. = ) Minutes old... About a week (maybe two) old 1 year old 2 years old

I have been struggling with whether or not to write this. Since I decided to write something I have been struggling with what to write. Most people know that I had a miscarriage a couple of months ago. At first the pregnancy seemed to be going just fine, but there was always something. Some feeling that I had that things weren't the way they should be. After a few weeks I went in and had an ultrasound. All I can say is it's pure torture to have your ultrasound done on a Thursday and have to wait till Monday for the results. Anyway, the ultrasound confirmed my suspicions. Even though I felt like something wasn't right it didn't make it any easier. I would have been ten weeks a couple of days after the miscarriage. And I know people meant well, but a lot of people just made things worse. My emotions were all over the place. I never really got a chance to grieve. I felt forced to push through and just move on with life. I know I needed to take time to grieve. Time to cry ...

I had the privilege to review WonderMaps  by Bright Ideas (thanks to Timberdoodle ). When I heard about the product I just jumped at the chance. Our curriculum for the year requires a LOT of maps and this is perfect. We are studying different countries and cultures all year long.  So, you are probably wondering what is so special about the WonderMaps program. It's so special because you can customize it! It's so funny to see homeschooling mamas get excited over maps. When you are given the opportunity to make it match up with a lesson it's makes a person giddy. = )  There are over 350 maps to choose from (just to start with)! And it's not just the typical maps that you expect to find. Besides the maps of the world and the United States there are also historical and thematic maps (bible maps included.)  Features (as listed in Timberdoodle ) WonderMaps is designed with easy-to-use layers that allow you to enjoy great customizable features with just a click. Selec...

Today is our 9th wedding anniversary! It's amazing to think all that has happened in nine years! (In September it will be 12 years since our first date). So, I wanted to take time to share some pictures with you. I have divided them up into groups: our engagement and our wedding.  ( this is a repost from a couple years ago ) I will first tell the story of our engagement. We had been together for 8 1/2 months when Hubby asked for my hand. And boy...was the proposal a good one. I had many friends jealous over this. That summer I was babysitting for 3 children and when I returned home from work I came home to an apartment filled (and I do mean FILLED!) with streamers and balloons. I think I had about a hundred balloons in my apartment and streamers were everywhere. On the table were a dozen yellow roses (one of my utmost favorites) and a box. What was inside that box you say......It was a gorgeous black dress that he picked out for me and instructions to put on the dress and meet hi...

I thought about making two separate posts, but I think it will be fine with just one. First up is Miss H's bridal shower. I am going to miss this girl. I already do (her family moved away). But the thought of this wonderful young lady getting married puts a huge smile on my face and makes me cry all at the same time. I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked, but I did get a couple. (and some video of the music too)  The last wedding shower I attended was for Miss R . I wanted to do one for my sister last year, but I failed (it never happened. Sorry Sis) Anyway, this was a nice shower and had a good time visiting with friends. (Until the children got covered in mud, but I will get to that in a minute) Opening Gifts Next in line to get married (Miss B, not Special K) Enjoying the sunshine Playing in a puddle they were told not to and got splashed when the pony/cart when through it. Gross! The next day was the Mother/Daughter dinner at my Mother-in-Lo...

The Friday after Resurrection Sunday was a special night for the boys and me. You may remember the Princess Ball last year. Well this year it was the boys' turn. It was time for the Knights to have a special night with their Mama. The bad thing was that we had to wait almost 30 minutes longer than what was written on the tickets. Not good when Little E can't stand still for more than 2 minutes. It was pretty neat to see some of the older boys at the door to greet the guests. They thought this suit of armor was pretty cool.  Mr. Ornery himself What boy doesn't love a boomerang? I am just glad he didn't give any of the boys a chance to throw one. Someone could have been hurt. ;-) After we watched the demonstration of the boomerang and the didgeridoo we had a big meal. The boys sure loved the mini cheeseburgers. We were blessed with a talk from a son (soccer play for MVNU) and a mother (of 10 boys). It was a very nice evening that ended with the boys being knig...

Wow, a whole month since I posted last. Really? It can't have been that long......can it? I guess I have let "life" take control. Not good. My sister kindly reminded me that I needed to get a post up. (She is having withdrawal. :-) The day before Resurrection Sunday my parents came up to see us and bring the children some goodies. :-) Checking out all the goodies Getting help from Grandma Special K loves to go on walks!   Then after my parents left we went with my Mother-in-Love to the circus in town. I had to turn away for most of the first act because it made me so nervous. Especially since they did all of this inside of a building at the fairgrounds. He was just inches from the beams in the building. Aack! Big T was chosen to be apart of the hula hoop contest. Poor kid didn't have a chance. ;-)  Resurrection Sunday was wonderful (although a very long day). We attended sunrise service, breakfast, and the morning service. Then we had the church se...