Promise

Christmas always brings promise. It brings the promise of eternal life through claiming Jesus Christ as your Savior. It brings the promise of warm memories made with family and friends. It brings the promise of a white blanket of snow to cover outside as you are warmly tucked in your home. I love Christmas because it encompasses the two things that I cherish the most in my life, Jesus and family. Luke 2:11 "For unto you a child is born, in the city of David, a Savior which is Christ the Lord." God Bless and Happy Holidays.

Ta-dah

Yeah, you know, I don't think so.

It's kind of what everyone is anticipating and looking to HAVE happen in this country, but I don't think so.

What I think is from the scene in "Jurassic Park." It's where the chubby guy that plays Newman from "Seinfeld" is about to shut off all the power in the dinosaur park so they can reboot. He says, "Hold on to your butts." That's what I think.

High Temps

Some things are so hot they sizzle.

I am a lover of the classics when it comes to novels and all the classical love stories. I am a huge Jane Austen reader. Call me a romantic, forever I will be. As Marianne says in Sense and Sensibility, "Can the soul really be satisfied with polite affections? To love is to burn, to be on fire like Juliet or Guinevere or Eloise."

I have always been an avid reader, not much of a television watcher. I was a complete skeptic when my niece convinced me to read the Twilight series, and within the first chapter I was hooked. I don't like petty stories that have no depth of character. The bases of the story my niece described left me thinking it wouldn't be deep or intense. I gave the book a chance on a long flight back from Florida this past August. I voraciously read the next three within months. It is one of the greatest love stories of all time. How can you argue with that? Gotta love it.

By the way, Elinor's love in "Sense and Sensibility" is named Edward. Hmmmm.

The Holidays and Life Goes On

It's fast-approaching Christmas 2008 which I can't believe. Things are happy, healthy and well with our family. We had some nice pictures of us all showered, smiling and together at once which is an annual event in itself on the night we were all going to the children's Christmas program at school. They had a good time at the program, and Julia was an angel in Kindergarten which was just precious.

Julia has also discovered my old digital camera that she is filling rapidly with pictures of everything. It's neat to look through her memory card and see things from her view. She thinks I have one eyeball. We know that now because every picture you either lose the top of your head or one eye. :) She loves to take pictures though, and she is very creative with it.

Chase is getting over strep which just affected him this year. His class had a bad outbreak of it, 10 reported children! He is feeling so much better heading into the holidays, and he and Julia are anticipating DS Lites this year! Hmmmmm? Only the shadow knows for another 6 days!

Paige is loving being on break already even though her teacher has assigned a lot to do over break. Sometimes I wonder if this is really not just 8th grade curriculum disguised as a 5th grade class.

Shane is still happy at Verizon and doing so well. He is continually taking online classes as many as he can handle with working fulltime and balancing family! We hope everyone has a blessed Christmas and New Year of 2009!

I Know You're Talking But I'm Just Not Listening

So our little Hudson is now fast approaching 16 months. He is so over it. He is over people telling him to talk, to eat, what to wear, where to go. He is sass and intensity. He is full of nonstop energy. His sleep is minimal. His movement is constant. His vibrant personality is full of complete spunk and is out in full force. He totally reminds us of Julia made over in a boy form. When he was born, he had her little face and we called him "Boy Julia." We all know who Julia takes after, now, don't we? He can keep up with the olders without missing a beat, and boy, don't get in his way. His favorite look to give you is, "Uh-huh. I know that means no, but I am not obeying you right now."

His personality has now emerged completely.

He is his mother.

Christmas is Coming

Christmas is coming, and the goose is getting fat! Please put a penny in the old man's hat. I don't know. It's just something that my mom has always said since I can remember and now I say it to my kids :)

I haven't written in forever. I know. I have too many things going on, too many fingers in too many pies!! My sister has convinced me to get back on here because I like to look at her blog too, and my friends have bugged me about making them laugh and writing more.

So Julia lost her big, front tooth last night and so we all know she wants her front tooth for Christmas :)

Christmas is bittersweet as we are all still putting back together our hearts from my dad's untimely death this holiday. We love you, Dad!

Merry Christmas to all!

Spring Break at the Indoor Water Park

As the title says, after relaxing some of the week and "spring cleaning" our house (but that's fun to me, of course lol) we went to an indoor water park with Jonathan, Chandra and all their 52 kids. (LOL just three) We had so much fun. We wished it was longer. Our children totally get along and we enjoy each other too, so it's a win-win situation.

It was our first "trip" in our new van since the accident, and I am in love with my van. I really had a hard time letting go of my PAID OFF previous van when you have to let go of something so suddenly that I've had for 8 years!! BUT my new van is so roomy and luxurious that I feel spoiled in it. :/ The kids were in their own world with the digital headphone things. We discovered mid-drive that they can't hear us at all in the middle of a movie with the headphones. We were testing it with certain fun things we were saying outloud LOLOL, and they would give us blank stares back, so it was evident no one could hear us. Shane and I thought that was an extra perk about the dvd system that everyone forgot to tell us about. :)

The waterpark lodge was packed due to spring break, but we didn't really wait long for slide rides or anything. I particularly had an AWESOME time because last spring break I was pregnant with little Hudson Bear so I wasn't able to go on any slides. This spring break was just so relaxing and fun. Hudson loved the wave pool and the water spouts that would intermittently come out. He would stare intently when they would disappear; and when the water would pop up, he would laugh out loud. It was so cute. I took as many pictures as I could!!

Paige had so much fun with her BFF Lexi lol. I had so much fun with my BBF Chandra, and the men have been calling each other every day. Well, that part's not true but it sounded funny.

I loved it when we would all have a meal together. It was like clockwork, and it all worked so well! We would say, "Party of 11. 7 children. 2 highchairs." No one even looked at us like we were freaks! LOL Then when we would order, the first server we had gave a grand idea of "Group 1 and Group 2" and it's perfect because Chandra and Jonathan would say, "All the redheads belong to us." and then Shane and I would say, "All the brunettes are ours." (Minus Hudson who's blonde and throws it all off, but he doesn't order off the menu yet). We'll have to figure how to throw the blonde ones in later. :)

On the way home, everyone was passed out. Julia was the funniest because the movie was on and she slept crashed with the headphones on through the whole movie. When she woke up, she said, "I was a little tired. I almost fell asleep!" We said, "Really?! Almost?!" We showed her the pictures, and she wouldn't stop cracking up at herself.

xoxo

Where Have I Been?!

It has been so long since I've written or posted pictures. I have been so busy with family, some guy totaling our van while Julia and I were in it, school stuff with the kids, some guy crashing my van, life's activities, church activities, and ...did I mention, some guy wrecking our van? LOL

Feb 23 on our way back from a wonderful day with another girlfriend and her little girl and Julia going to Disney Princesses on Ice, some guy plowed us from behind and "didn't see us" and totaled my van. GASP.

HORRID.

Let me tell you.

I have never been in a wreck before in my life. I still have headaches from it two months later, but the first few weeks was TERRIBLE. Blah. We all survived. Praise the Lord. No one was hurt seriously as they should have been. God's hand was so on our van and our lives that day!!

Anyway, that's been the major thing that went down the past two months. LOL OTHER THAN THATTTTT, Hudson is growing like a gigantic crazy weed. Paige, Chase and Julia are awesome and just started soccer season. I posted some new pics.

God is Good all the time :)

January is Bittersweet for Me

Last year on January 19, our St. Bernard, or Saintie as bernard lovers call them, passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. Her name was Savannah Kate, and she was just 3. The children just adored her. She was the biggest hunk of love you could ever find in a dog. Truly a gentle giant as the breed is called. The anniversary of her death is hard for me because I have been thinking about her so much! We have always had dogs, but Savannah was my baby. The kids called her Nana from "Peter Pan". Sometimes they even called her Nana Head because she always thought she was this little puppy and would lay her big head on your lap like she was tiny. Another trait of her breed is that they behave like they are small because they grow at such a rapid rate. When she passed away, she was full-grown at 140 lbs. When Savannah would play and run around, look out! She thought she was a teacup chihuahua.

Savannah had become lethargic and acted funny all weekend, but I kind of passed it off because she loves to sleep and snore all day anyway. :) When the week had started, it was a dramatic decline to refusing to eat and drink. We took her in and they began running tests on her. They were onto a disorder in her blood that may be able to be treated with radiation, but she went into cardiac arrest in her overnight stay and they called me at like 2 a.m. to tell me. IT WAS SO DEVASTATING! I think what broke my heart the most is that I had gone home around midnight and left her on ivs and such. Also, having to tell the kids was so sad :(

Savannah will forever be missed! She loved to play in the snow and hated the heat because of her size and fur LOL We always kept her shaved down. Whenever it snows, we still say it's Savannah in heaven saying hello :) WE LOVE YOU SAVANNAH. RUN FREE, GIRL! :)

I posted my favorite picture of her as a puppy on our deck and the other favorite of her dressed in Julia's tutu around her neck. Julia always dressed up Savannah in bonnets, jewelry, hats, and she followed Julia around like she was a queen which was a funny picture because she was 10 times bigger than Jules. Savannah's favorite pasttime was laying in front of the television while Paige, Chase and Julia used her body as a pillow for their heads while watching a movie.

Much love to you, Savannah Kate.

Love Bubble Baths

Baths are so dreamy. Indulging in a bath is one of the best treats. Ahhhhhh :)

Happy New Year :)

We have just been so busy that I have been negligent in blogging :) What a beautiful Christmas and end to such a great 2007 year! Everyone had such a great Christmas, and as a family we have so much to be grateful for. Shane's loving his new position with Verizon. Paige is loving her year with the new 4th grade teacher, her friends, soccer season fast-approaching, etc. Chase is beginning Upward Basketball through DCS church next week, a verocious reader in 1st grade (hmm wonder where he gets that from?!) and loves his video games. Julia begins dance with her bestest buddie Madelyn this month and is also starting soccer in March for the first time and is thrilled. She is doing so well in pre-K and is such a little social butterfly. She loves all her friends. Hudson is sitting up, saying "MMMMMM MMMMM MMMMM MAMA" which just blows everyone away and excites me! LOL I know he doesn't know MAMA is me yet, but to hear it is magic to my ears, and also he's the first to ever say MAMA first. It's always DADA because that's easier to say. Hudson sleeps all night and eats like a horse all day. Things are good.

The first thing though is a prayer request for Hudson! He came down with a chest and head cold last week and tested positive for RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) which just shocked us because he has been receiving that immunization through a special clearance with our insurance due to his heart issue he was born with. Well, what we now know is that it doesn't PREVENT him from getting RSV; but if he does get it, it's a lesser case. Well, that's for sure. He's doing great despite the seriousness of contracting the RSV. It's just an elaborate term for severe head and chest cold. It's main negative press that it receives is because infants suffer from complications with RSV if they get too high of a fever and pneumonia which is not the case with Hudson. He never ran a fever.

I battle every day with germs! He is exposed to so much just because of having three older siblings and the elements he's exposed to (going to games, outings with the older children, etc.) All their friends was to touch Hudson which is a constant battle too. You just can't keep your later children as healthy as the first LOL Anyway, there's nothing you can do with RSV but watch for any symptoms to worsen. It lasts a good two weeks, and you just have to keep him comfortable. It's all viral, so there's no medication or treatments he can take. I did, however, research and buy some homeopathic baby rub for his chest and he is taking a bath with rosemary, eucalyptus and menthol every night which is totally helping him rest well and clears his head and nose.

GOD IS GOOD. Hudson has been through so much physically, he's so strong and a fighter. What a trooper! He is always babbling and playing and has a huge grin on his face. He's the most content baby I've ever been around.

I HAVE A PRAISE for the New Year. My dad suffered stomach cancer a couple years ago. He had half his stomach taken out and went through radiation. For the first two years after, it's really touch and go whether the cancer will return; and in his case, if it did, the outcome wasn't good because they had done all they could do. He had an endoscopy the other day and A CLEAN BILL of health. CANCER FREE. Praise the Lord! It was a real big celebration in our house :)

I hope everyone is cherishing every moment they have with their loved ones and friends! Life is so beautiful. It's all around us. All you have to do is look.

A Rolling We Will GO

Hudson wants to just GO. He sits up if he has his boppy behind him which he LOVES. He loves to be sitting up because he can see all the action around him which is constant, of course! He wants to push and crawl so bad, but he's been rolling for 2 weeks now and discovered that he can ROLL to get where he wants to go which just cracks me up. He's so efficient at it, that he probably won't crawl LOL Why crawl when you can roll everywhere? Hudson is the earliest of my babies to roll at barely three months! He loves to be on his belly and prop his arms up trying to lift his chest to play with toys and see things.

I will eventually take a picture of Hudson smiling! He smiles constantly, but the minute he sees my flashy flash, he stares off into the light and stops smiling! I need to get to a spot where there's enough light coming in so I don't need to use my flash! Since it's winter, we'll have to wait until March for that to happen :)

The First Snow and Mental Health Day of the School Year

We officially have entered the 20 degree days and snowland. The kids have had 2-hr delays with school, but not a day off. We took a mental health day last Wednesday. I allow my children to have 3 a year. I don't know if it's more for me or for them :) It's just a day where you're maybe tired but not really sick, and you're allowed to stay home from school and play and hang out. You don't have to lay around and pretend you're sick because it's just a mental health day. Usually it's spent in pjs the entire day relishing the fact we don't have to run around all day. They love their allotted days and use them with fervor!

They plan them too. This year they said, "The first snow, we are using our free day." They aren't allowed to use their mental health day to escape tests or other unpleasantries at school. :) So they bundled up in their ski coats, pants, boots and played in our backyard and property. Our property beyond the fence was extra deep due to the wind and drifts, and they really loved tromping along in that snow. You can tell I'm warm in my pjs with Hudson taking this picture from the deck :) as we quickly went back inside to make hot chocolate!!

Julia's Favorite Coat

Julia got this dress coat from Laura Ashley. She wears it to church, dressup affairs, etc. Oh, and did I mention she won't take it off around the house either? If you come to the breakfast table, there Julia will be in her dresscoat. "I like it. It's warm and pretty." If you go upstairs to tuck the kids in bed, there Julia will be with pjs on, and the dress coat.

"You have to take it off to sleep now."
"But in the morning I am putting it back on."
"All right."

I think it's been the best investment we've ever made in anything.
Here Julia is ready for her Christmas singing program at her preschool, of course, in her dress coat :)

I See My Husband, and He Sees Me

Shane and I took these pictures of Hudson just the other day, and we were laughing because I kept saying, "Oh, my gosh! It's you all over," and Shane kept saying, "I just see you and Julia when she was little." Well, everyone knows that all three of my older children look just like me and my baby pictures and then all the pictures after down the line. However, Hudson has a blend of a baby Paige, Chase, and Julia and fits right in BUT I totally see Shane. Especially in that second picture of Hudson where he's saying, "You want me to take out the trash and then what?" just like his dad :)

Love

John 12:25 "Those who love their life will lose it, while those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life."

Wow!

When I think about how much I love my life and my children, I always think of the verse that Jesus demands we love Him more than this life, more than our own. How powerful must that love be that we feel toward the One Above?!

Matthew 10:37 "Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves a son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me."

"Talking" and Trying to Wriggle-Crawl!

Hudson is 12 weeks this week and officially 3 months on the 20th!
When Hudson isn't taking a nap that looks as if he's an angel fallen from a cloud and landed in our house, he is "talking" up a storm or trying to inch up his legs and feet and "crawl" or at least move around and wiggle to get somewhere. I've never seen anything like it.

The "talking" blows me away. He started it around 6 weeks. My girlfriend Mia and I would be on the phone, and she would say, "Is that him TALKING?!" I would say, "I KNOW!" He just started very early looking at you and saying "Ahhh-goo..ah-goo...mmmahhhhoooahhhwwwaaahhh." And then he waits for you to respond. You say some things back like you do in a give-take conversation at 6 months usually, and then off he goes again after you've had your turn talking explaining something else. Hudson also loves to razz and blow bubbles and pffftppfffft at you and then smile when you do it back. What's entertaining is we have all started trying to intrepret what we think he's saying to all of us. It varies from day to day. Some days we say Hudson's saying, "Why am I riding around with this crazy family in this van?" or "Why is everyone clapping and saying "weeee" to me on the baby swing? What's the big deal?" And my favorite, "Lady, quit smiling at me and give me the goods. Can't you tell I'm hungry? Smiling is for later." The more we laugh at what we think he's saying, the more he talks and the giggling session continues.

I read a funny quote the other day. "I know what's wrong with teenagers. You spend the first two years of their lives teaching them to walk and talk and the rest of the years telling them to sit down and be quiet." :)

Julia Christine is 5!

A week ago this past Sunday, Julia turned 5. My baby girl! She was so excited this year because we have always had a party with family or taken her and just a friend to Chuck E. Cheese or something like that, but this year she invited her whole preschool class to the same place where Chase had had his party this year! It's so neat to have a big place where there are all the indoor swingsets, etc. Julia had such a good time and was completely grown up! Poof. It happens right before your eyes for sure.

I felt like for the first time in a long time I slipped! With all the organizing and running around, I forgot my camera! I thought I was going to hyperventilate. A scrapbooker losing a scrapbooking moment forever due to a lack of photos?!? The world was ending. Blessedly, a few friends took some phone pix snaps and sent them to my phone, so then I had them printed off. Whew. Yes, Julia, there really was a party for you and you really did turn 5. See the pictures?!

Julia had picked her theme out months in advanced as a "puppy party." This surprised all of us because she is an avid kitty lover. We got puppy plates and puppy napkins and puppy cups and had "Little Pet Shop" puppy cupcakes with puppy footprints on it. She was thrilled to celebrate with all her new "big girl" school friends and loved ones alike!!