The Blessing of Friends!

We recently had a spontaneous super fun weekend with one of our best friends, the R family. We love them all so much and cherish their friendship, and we are so blessed to have them in our lives! Thankfully they put up with us for a couple days, and we were able to visit with them and their 4 beautiful children.

Here's Michael with Henry (left) and our godson Luke! Luke is 8  mo, Henry is 4 (in this pic) and they are the same size, teehee! Yes my best friend makes teeny babies and I make huge ones ;) 

The big kids all had SUCH a great time together being silly and just playing and playing! 

Leah, Lydia, Josiah, Megan

Who knew so much love and so many miracles could grow out of our two families?? When we first met it was just their oldest Leah, and Josiah and they were just 2 months old.... 

Now look how we've grown! :) 

Leah with Luke, Lydia, Josiah with Henry, Megan, Benjamin, Peter

The one time they all settled down a bit, thanks Backyardigans! ;) 

Megan (our goddaughter) and Lydia, having some lunch and some girl time! ;)

Field Trip! Walters Art Museum

Also in October we had a field trip to the Walters Art Museum, where Josiah took a class called "Art Detectives!" He learned SO much and came out talking about museum conservators. I was so proud of him and I'm glad we all had a good time. Daddy was able to meet us there mid-day and then spend the rest of the day with us, which was just icing on the cake. 

I can't remember the older child's name, but Henry was charming these fellow homeschool boys who came to visit him. They were making him smile and then one little boy said, "He has the best smile ever! I love how his eyes get all squinty!" haha. Adorable :)

We ran into our friends Matthew and MaryAnne which was also a pleasant surprise! (brown shirt and rainbow jacket) Josiah and Lydia (white shirt with flowers) were building with blocks before his class began.

Josiah built this fantastic castle/garden/fortress thing.... Definitely could be an architect one day, right? ;)  

I got a quick shot of Josiah's class (he's in the back you can't really see him!) before they went off to explore and learn. 

Daddy with all the kiddos in the "Knight" room!

cool insect display- beautiful butterflies!

Short but Sweet! Soccer Season 2012

Josiah played soccer again this year, he was on the purple team. But since he broke his ankle after the first couple practices, he wasn't able to make most of the practices or games this season. He is finally all healed up and he was able to play goalie for the last 2 games of the season. He loved it and did a great job!

Warming up before the 1st of his 2 games left in the season.

got it!

Grandpa and Ben- his cheerleaders in the FREEEZING cold! haha

Josiah in action!

Way to go my goalie!

Backtrack- Halloween 2012

Now that I have a new computer (after my laptop died) and I found my camera, I can finally post updates and photos about everything else going on around here!

Here are some pictures of our cutie pies on Halloween. I told them "go into your dress-up bin and see what you can find to dress up for Halloween." genius! easy and they were happy as can be. They also got lots of candy and Mommy cheated way too much on her diet. ;) Fun times all around.

Grandpa visited! Reading books to the little boys...

Lydia the Bumble Bee! 

Lydia and Josiah- the "Roman Centurion" ... so he said. (Knight costume, roman centurion hat, whatever!) ;)

Daddy and kiddos

Benjamin-o-saurus!

All 4 kiddos

The loot!

He's getting so grown up and handsome

sweet little boy!

big pretty girl

Henry the mouse! (4 months here)  He looks JUST like Josiah did when he wore this costume. haha! 

Sick kiddos, but lots to be Thankful for!

Hello everyone!
Where have we been? Oh I don't know... just keeping up with all these little ones really keeps me busy.

Right now we have a sick little baby who has been coughing and wheezing for almost 2 weeks. BOO! :( He went BACK to the doctor this morning and lo and behold, it moved to his ears so he has an ear infection. Bummer. Little guy is on a nebulizer with albuterol as well as an antibiotic now for 10 days. Here's hoping he turns a corner in the next few days! The doctor said he should, and that he's "not allowed to get worse" so if he does I am supposed to call. We are hoping and praying he is well again soon. On that note, he doesn't really ACT sick (just uncomfortable or clingy sometimes) but he is pretty sick! He is trying so hard to be his usually smiley happy self.

What a hoot ;)  (owl hat lovingly made by Mommy)

I swear he never stops chewing on his fingers! 

(Henry- almost 5 months)

Lydia and Benjamin woke up sick this morning too. Booooo. So here's hoping they get over it quickly this week and aren't having to go to the doctor as well. Please pray for my kiddos if you can! :)

Despite sick kiddos, we are looking forward to spending time as a family this week for Thanksgiving...although we miss Mom who is in TX (LOVE YOU MOM!!) and will be thinking of her and all our family that lives far away. We are so thankful for all our loving friends and family, our home, our Church, our faith, our children, our godchildren, food, clothing and being able to share God's love with the world. 

We hope you all have a very blessed Thanksgiving!!! 

Quick photo post update!

Quick Photo post update on what's been going on around here...

 Lydia had her first ballet class! (and her 2nd, now that I am finally posting this...) She loves it and is having SO much fun! Making little new friends (most of which go to our church- yay!) and her teacher is just fantastic.

Josiah has been his usual intellectual self. This would be a "report" he wrote on Elephants... oh, BEFORE we started our school day... while I was getting dressed and brushing my teeth. ;o) The kid cracks me up! Maybe he'll be a writer? Rare that boys like to read and write as much as he does!

Apple Festival with Grandma!! Kids painting pumpkins...

Aunt "teen" (Christine) and adorable cousin Abigail painting her pumpkin! The concentrated face is so flippin' cute. She is the spitting image of my brother, it's so funny!

Henry... taken at the apple festival- oh man, those dimples get me every time. All he has to do is smile, I'm totally wrapped around his tiny finger ;)

The Very Hungry Caterpillar!!! Who we met at the Baltimore Book Fest. How fun! :)

Mommy's dinosaur hat for Henry! 

Three kinda tired kids at the book fest! Notice-- Josiah's "moonboot" foot there... ;o) He's hanging in there... still a few more weeks of healing ahead of him. Then hopefully he'll finally be better!

Henry Isaac - 3 months

Well, a lot has been happening around here lately, and once again busy busy busy!!! Which is why I haven't posted much. But, first of all... Henry is 3 months old today!

He is full of smiles, giggles, baby babble and spit up. We love him to pieces!

Josiah's ankle is feeling much better, and he'll hopefully have his cast removed this Friday. Yay! Lydia is doing great, just enjoying her sweet little life as usual... she's just the cherry on top of our sundae of boys ;) that didn't really make sense did it? ... hmmm... WELL, did I mention I'm really tired and I have a head cold? yeah. It's not fun! The beauty of homeschooling though is it's flexible! We took off school today so that Mommy could just rest (HA HA HA ha....) as much as possible, that is, so I can feel better. My throat has been hurting for quite awhile, I'm really hoping I'm over this illness asap!

Benjamin is rocking the potty thing... he's doing great. We still have accidents here and there, but mainly he's doing wonderful and we're so proud of him. It's really crazy how fast this year and a half has flown by- I remember his 1st birthday party so well!

Michael is doing wonderful. He has taken a "new position" (sort of) at his work and although I'm sure it's stressful he doesn't really ever seem stressed. The strength and calmness he always exudes is astounding. I love him so much. He really is the rock of our family and we'd all fall apart with him holding us up! Since I am sick, he took care of just about everything around the house yesterday, it was wonderful. On Friday and Saturday we were blessed to be able to go to a Love & Respect Marriage conference.. thank you to GRANDMA for watching the kiddos!!!  It was definitely an eye-opener, and even in a wonderful happy marriage like ours, there is always room for improvement. If you are married- or hoping to get married some day, I highly recommend this conference!! Or at the very least, buy the book and read it TOGETHER. You really won't regret it. It's kind of mind boggling that someone hadn't figured out the concepts of this conference-- which are rooted in scripture-- and shared it before now. It's amazing- I'm telling you! You cannot continue your marriage (successfully) without knowing this stuff- it's fantastic. Look into it!!! (do it!) ;o)
Alright I gotta go... hope you all are well- God bless! Thanks for checking in! :o)

My wonderful Hubby (9-5-12)

Back to School! 2012

Starting this past Monday, yes, on Labor Day, (why you say? Cause I had already planned our first week and did not skip the Monday! haha) we started BACK TO SCHOOL!

Josiah Timothy is beginning 2nd grade this year! He is so excited and doing very well already. He is a bit "behind" in math, so we are finishing up the 1st grade book, but... he's also a year ahead and only 6, so I'm not too worried about that. We are enjoying learning each new thing each step of the way.

(Josiah propped up and ready to go- backpack on the desk in front of him.)

As some of you may know... (ahem, visit my previous post) Josiah broke his ankle on Sunday. I know! I know! I'm a mean ol' Mom for making him start school the next day anyway, right!? No.... trust me, if he wanted to, I would've let him sit in front of movies all day, but he was really excited to get back to school, he'd been waiting for weeks and was excited about his new books, backpack & supplies. So we discussed it and decided to begin as scheduled and we really enjoyed our first day, even with his ankle elevated and iced most of the time. It was a great distraction for him from the pain and frustration of his "bum ankle". It didn't take him long to finish his school work, he was done before lunch, and then the real work began! Keeping him from using his ankle and resting instead of trying to crawl around and play with his siblings was really not that easy ;) He missed playing with them so much, they play pretend SO MUCH together, but his ankle kept getting bumped (which made him cry) so I had to try to keep him still. He played LEGOs, watched movies, and read books most of the day on Monday and Tuesday. Today we finally got him into the orthopedic and he got his cast and should be doing much better now. 

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Lydia Marie is in PRESCHOOL now! So we have formal "school" lessons for each day (mainly because she kept begging me to "do school!" last year with Josiah!) but they don't take her long to complete. We also have lots of breaks for playing with Benjamin, snacks, arts and crafts and just running around. 

Lydia posing with her My Little Pony backpack at her school table :) 

(Lydia's cut & paste worksheet for her religion lesson on the Blessed Trinity)

Benjamin sitting at the school table... pretending to be involved in school. ;)

Josiah finishing up some math work at the kitchen table after lunch. 

Ben... caught in the act! of... something? being silly and playing while we worked on schoolwork :o)

My little teacher's assistant, who took a good morning nap in the swing while we got our work done!

 First Day of School!

Mommy and Teacher's Assistant Henry, Lydia and Josiah :)

Anyway our first day of school was extra wonderful since DADDY was home!!! He was able to help with potty breaks for Ben and take the baby when he cried. It was good to have an "idea", even with help, of how each day would go. Sure it can be hectic... but I'm hopeful it'll go well. The school day all worked out again on Tuesday when Daddy went back to work...so I am crossing my fingers for a pretty great school year, even with all the little kids around!