While Daddy was gone...again

Last weekend Jacob traveled to a conference at the Creation Museum. It was a family conference...and yes, he went without his family. Ha! The idea of taking 4 small children on a 6.5 hour trip for just two nights was not my idea of fun. Not to mention the money we would've had to spend on gas and hotel (Jacob rode with his parents and shared a hotel room with them). So anyway...it turned out to be the best decision for us for many reasons. We did some fun things to pass the time while Jacob was gone. 

It was the last weekend of a Kiddie Carnival and I'd been wanting to take the kids all summer. So I braved it and took them by myself. The kids did so well and we had a great time! They all liked the cars and the train ride.

We got a bag of cotton candy. Lily and Levi loved it, but Asher wasn't too much of a fan.

We stood in a long line for the ferris wheel and the whole time all three kids said they wanted to do it. When we got up to the gate, I asked Asher if he was going to do it and he said, "nope!" and handed his ticket back to me. Ha! I was really proud of Levi especially - last year, he hardly rode any rides because he was scared. This year, he rode everything! 

They all enjoyed the swings.

Asher climbed into these rockets and climbed right back out and said he wasn't riding. Maybe next year. :)

Miss Ava was a sweetie all evening! We were there for 2.5 hours and she did great the whole time! I was so very thankful!

Asher is obsessed with Jacob's motorized bike. He's not allowed to touch it (because he's knocked it over several times and messed up the gas tank), but one morning he was awfully quiet in the room with the bike and when I checked on him, he said, "mama, I'm just looking at Daddy's bike." Had to take a picture of his little hands behind his back. :) 

We tried out a different splash park one day. It was SO nice! We were the only people there for a long time. There is a really nice playground beside the splash park so we took a picnic and ate and played. There is also a long walking trail that was fun to explore. We will definitely be going back to that park again!

Sweet little girly.

There were only two riding toys, so Lily and Levi "made do" while Asher was on the other one. :)

I'm thankful for sweet times with my babes!

Snapshots.

Sweet sleeping babes.

1 month old.

Lily got to go with Grammie and Aunt Elizabeth to see Daddy play in The Nutcracker.

Enjoying a youth orchestra Christmas concert.

Baking Christmas cookies.

Snuggle time.

Sweet girl!

These children love to be with their Daddy!

Late night snuggles.

On Thursday I will be joining a cool series called A Day in the Life of an Oily Blogger! I'm excited to share how my family uses our essential oils throughout the day. :)

Lately.

(this picture is not meant to imply that Ava is an unhappy baby...it just goes well with what I'm about to say)

My days have been non-stop busy the last few weeks. We've had our ups and downs. Some days I've felt like the only thing I accomplished was keeping my children alive. I'm not joking. Some days I've felt so productive and like "wow, maybe I can do this!"

Um, yeah! So unfortunately most days have been rough. Add postpartum emotions to the normal craziness of having 4 children 3 and under and you've got a mama who basically becomes a puddle of tears over the smallest thing and feels like the ultimate mom failure when her sons have to sleep in their clothes because they have no clean jammies. 

I really don't think I've ever been more thankful that God gives those good days (good moments, good parts-of-days) sprinkled throughout the hard ones. I'm thankful that He gives grace and strength abundantly when I feel like I just. can't. do. it. 

Ava is a serious little girl.

These boys. Oh, these boys. Asher has started climbing out of his crib. He apparently is pretty good at it because he's never hurt himself, but it scares me to death! We are going to move him to the toddler bed and Levi to a twin bed as soon as we can get a twin mattress. 

The other night, Jacob was gone and I hurriedly put the older children to bed a little early because Ava needed to eat. Lily went straight to sleep but the boys were being loud and obviously not ready to go to sleep, so I told them they could come play quietly until I was done feeding Ava. They were pretty rambunctious (we had cleaned up everything off the floor, so you can see they did some mess-making) until I told them Daddy was on his way home. Then they jumped up on the couch with a book and read quietly together until he got home. Little stinkers! :)

Last week, Levi was being naughty and I sent him to his "time-out chair" in his room to wait for me to come talk to him. Well, when I went to go in his room, I found that he'd locked he and Asher in the room. I got the little stick key thing and tried to get the door open, but I couldn't. I started to panic. Jacob was about 40 minutes away teaching for the day. I could hear the boys up on their dresser so I told them to get down and play legos. Thankfully they obeyed! :) 

After trying unsuccessfully to get the door opened, I called Jacob's dad who works about a minute from our house. He was so sweet to drop what he was doing and come (after finding a few tools that he thought he might need). He was able to get the door open very quickly...using the "key"...then he taught me how to unlock the door. Ha! We found the boys playing legos sweetly. Notice the time out chair. LOL

An older sibling wanted to share. :)

Play dough!

Lily wanted to see how Ava would fit in her doll cradle :)

Most of this post was written last week. Praise God, this week has been a bit better. Levi had his final post-op appointment yesterday and the doctor is very pleased with how he has healed and how his eyes look! That is a huge blessing!

Nehemiah 8:10

For the JOY of the Lord is your strength.

She's here!!

Ava Mae

Born at 8:04 pm on November 10

7lbs and 21in long

We are thrilled to be home with all our babes! 

Happy Day.

We had such a fun day on Tuesday. I decided to take the kids to pick out little pumpkins at a "pumpkin patch" a local church had. When I drove by on Monday, they still had tons of pumpkins, but when we got there Tuesday morning, they had packed up and all that was left were little gourds. I felt so, so bad because I'd gotten the kids so excited about this special treat.

We tried the farmer's market next and hit the jackpot for pumpkins and apples! I was so thankful that the kids were able to get pumpkins. Then I decided to take them on a nature walk around a local park to find pretty leaves. We wandered around for over an hour, munching on apples, picking up leaves and acorns. The children were so well behaved and we really just had the best time. It was a balm to this tired mama's soul.

Three cuties.

burning off energy.

Later the same day, our babysitter came for a few hours so I could take Lily out on a special date with mama before Baby Girl is born.

I let her choose where she wanted to go. Our first stop was the Dollar Tree for some new dress up stuff. She loves all things girly/dress up! After that, we ran by a local consignment store to see if they had any shoes in Lily's size, but they didn't, so we headed to a new frozen yogurt shop.

It was super windy and sunny, but Lily wanted to sit outside anyway. She kept having to hold her hair out of her face so she could eat. 

Our final stop was Target. We found some shoes (on sale! yay!) and she picked out a new book. In the picture, she's riding in Levi's carseat. Whenever her brothers aren't with us, she loves to ride in their carseats. Silly girl!

After I put the boys to bed that night, I came in her room and found this little setup. I think Jacob's going to need to build her a dressing table! :)

I am so thankful for the fun days with my babies.

Sometimes you just have to laugh.

Random pictures and confessions from the "other" side of mommyhood.

When you don't get breakfast ready soon enough, your toddler just helps himself to whatever he can find.

My child is the one when singing her favorite song in church hollers out between stanzas "louder" just like she does when it plays in the van.

You are afraid that people driving by will assume this is a not so good part of town just by the state of your window blinds. Yes, we still live in the dark ages (ha!) with mini blinds. Someday we hope to replace them with the amazing wide ones, but until then, scotch tape has become my BFF.

A three inch roach crawled across the kitchen (and got under the stove before I could kill it) one morning and I so terrified my children with my screams, that they set up a barricade of Daddy's shoes and the ironing board and kept watch from high stools. Thankfully, after about 20 minutes of watching, the roach made a beeline for the refrigerator and I was able to stomp it to pieces (of course with many screams accompanying the furious stomping).

Sometimes I'm totally ok to let the kids make a huge mess just to keep them occupied while I clean the bathroom or make an important phone call.

Attempting to make granola with a 1 year old.

I am the mom who...

lets the children play "getting ready" so she can get her make up on and hair done without too much interruption. (Levi was "painting his toenails." Ha.)

brushes her teeth with kids toothpaste and doesn't realize it (or think about it) until she is rinsing her mouth.

makes banana bread for the specific purpose of sharing it with someone and completely forgets to share it until it is completely eaten. oops!

rarely irons. If something is a little wrinkled, I just flick some water on it and toss it in the dryer for a few minutes.

while backing out of a parking spot, hears a little voice saying, "mama, aren't you going to buckle me?"

on Saturday night realizes she hasn't had a shower since Wednesday morning. ugh. (thankfully this hasn't happened too often)

while driving down the road after leaving the house, frantically starts asking if every child is present and accounted for because she can't remember if she put them all in.

realizes she's been singing "I'm a little teapot" to herself for the last 20 minutes while washing the dishes after the children are in bed for the night.

starts talking to the kids about the beautiful blue sky and saying, "look out Lily's side (of the van), there is a fire truck!" only to remember she's out running errands by herself. (obviously a very rare happening around here)

After talking to our new neighbor and laughing with him about the way Lily and Levi were dressed (Lily in a poofy flower girl dress, Levi in a blue/green striped shirt and red plaid shorts, both with their winter mittens on) I was mortified to remember that Lily had "done" my hair this morning and I was still sporting an "up-do" with a large bow and play plastic bright green handled knife stuck in it. Wow. Welcome to the crazyhood!

The Music Man, Mud, and Head Wounds

Thursday night our babysitter came and watched the boys while Jacob and I took Lily to a preview show of The Music Man. One of Jacob's students was in the play and wanted to get tickets for us. It was so fun! I'd never seen it before, but Jacob's played in several times. Lily sat mesmerized the whole time. I wish we'd taken Levi, but we weren't sure how he'd do since it was late in the evening. Maybe we'll get to do it again soon! 

Lily asked me the next morning why we (the audience) kept laughing during the performance. I told her that there were funny parts that made us laugh. She said, "no, mama, it wasn't funny!" LOL 

Friday night we went to 5 Guys for supper (our whole family can eat there for $12 so we usually end up there when we get to go out to eat. It's kind of funny because the workers know what we order and how we like stuff (cajun seasoning on the side, etc) without us even asking. ha!)

After supper we went to Hobby Lobby and had the best time! Lily and Levi loved everything and asked for many things to be put on their Christmas or Birthday lists. :) Of course when Jacob saw the foam swords he couldn't resist a little sword fighting. The kids were all about that!

On Saturday morning, Asher and I went to get groceries. He was the happiest little helper ever! He talked and laughed the whole time. I was thankful, because last time he went with me, he was grumpy and fussy about everything.

While we were at the store, these two mischief makers were at home with Jacob. They were painting at their easel, but then decided to pour the water all over themselves. ha.

After they soaked themselves, they went and played in the dirt. This picture was right before Jacob took them in for baths. Silly kids!

These two pictures were taken about an hour apart on Saturday afternoon. We've dealt with several "mouth/lip" boo-boo's, but this was our first head wound. Levi was playing in our closet (hiding in the hanging clothes) and I guess he lost his balance and fell into the door frame. I heard the crack and knew there was going to be blood. Oh my, was there ever too! Jacob was out running and I called him to come help, because I knew I needed to hold pressure on Levi's head. Jacob was a mile or two away, but he got home as quick as he could (with his best time ever! ha). 

Poor Levi was covered with blood, and I was too as I later came to find out. When he saw the blood on his clothes and arms, he asked, "mama, am I going to die?" Of course I told him that he was going to be just fine. Jacob got home and we decided that if we took him to the ER they would just glue it and not do stitches. Jacob ran out to get liquid bandaid and butterfly bandages and we got Levi all fixed up. 

Sweet boy was scared when we were bandaging him up and he started quoting Psalm 56:3 over and over. "What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee." It was precious.

I don't want to forget this part of the story in years to come, so I'm going to include it. Lily was the best helper to me while I was holding pressure on Levi's bleeding head. She stayed calm, got me a washcloth, climbed up and got an ice cube out of the freezer, got the lavender oil off the bathroom counter (I'm still not for sure how she figured out which one was lavender, because there were a bunch of oils on the counter, but she still managed to bring me the right one the first time.), and she climbed up to the medicine cabinet and counted out five Arnica pills for me to give Levi. I was so thankful for her help and very proud of her for keeping calm and quickly obeying when I asked her to do things she'd never done before.