Baby Syrup Face

I recently started putting Jonathan in the walker. His toes barely touch the floor so I have yet to see him move the thing. Last night I stuck him in it while I went upstairs with Isaac to get him started on a shower. The kids had just finished eating pancakes and I had the dishwasher open with only a few dishes in it. When I came downstairs this is what I saw:

Needless to say...he had a bath after this! AND he can obviously move the thing!

He also threw quite the fit when I took the plate away. He had never had so much goodness in his little 8 months of life. I'm wondering what I'm in for here! ;-)

Straw-li-lee's

Tonight I was frantically running around trying to get the house picked up before my massage clients arrived. After I was done vacuuming I realized Luke was not in sight and was awfully quiet. I did the ole' shout out of "Where's Lukey?" I went to the kitchen and discovered him with his belly on top of the counter and his legs hanging off the counter with face and hands covered in red and brown. He decided he was going to go for Mommy's homemade chocolate covered strawberries! I should have grabbed the camera because it was a sight to see. But I was in such a hurry to keep moving that it didn't cross my mind until later on. I have been trying to get Luke to say the word, "strawberry" on video for awhile now and this was the opportunity. As you will soon see my whole goal was to try to get him to say the word, "strawberry." Well, Lukey decided he was going to go through the whole order of events. He even goes on to tell us that after he was done eating the strawberry... he pooped. (Another word I've been wanting to get Luke to say on video, "poopt-tid." He delivered tonight!) The video is then cut short because he wants to see himself in the camera. Enjoy! :-)

The adventure of our first pet!

So over the years my kids have asked when they can have a dog or any other animal for that matter. At this point in our lives Chris and I have no interest in cleaning up dog poop during this busy season. Having 2 kids in diapers is more than enough poop for us, to be quite honest. :-) So the other day when the pet conversation came up again with Isaac, I was explaining to him that pets take responsibility. I went on to tell him that he doesn't even put his pajamas away in the morning. If he couldn't be responsible in that how would he be responsible for a pet? I told him that when he can show me responsibility with something like that then maybe...MAYBE we could get a fish for him to take care of. A couple days went by and I started noticing that he was putting his pajamas away in the morning without being asked. This was impressive to me. That day we were in Walmart. EVERY time I take the kids to Walmart, and we get to the section with the milk, the kids beg to go see the fish. Well, this time was like no other and the kids begged to not only SEE the fish, but to BUY a fish. I saw the gold fish for like $.38 and I figured I might as well give it a shot. If it doesn't work out I can always flush 'em. The kids were ecstatic!! I got one fish for each kid.

Now, I already had a tank and fish stuff from when Isaac was about 1 year old when we had a few fish in Tulsa. The kids had no knowledge of this. When I pulled it all out when we got home and Isaac saw all this stuff he could hardly contain his excitement. He saw that not only did I have a little aquarium, but I had some pretty rocks. He exclaimed, "Oh MOMMY!! You have pretty rocks?!?" Then he saw a little plant thing, "OH MOM!! You have a TREEEE!!! OH You're the BEST MOM EVER!!" And he gave me this giant hug. It was quite hilarious. The fun part about the fact that he is a drama king is that not only are his lows really low, but his highs are really high! He was so dramatic. It was hilarious.

After we got the fish settled they had to come up with names for the fish. Isaac named his fish "Gabriel," after the angel Gabriel. Grace named her fish, "Sunny." Then Grace named Jonathan's fish "Rollie Pollie." Isaac and Grace decided the best name for Luke's fish would be "Destroyer." I'm sure you can understand their reasoning and justification for the naming of Luke's fish. Just to be sure I had to ask why they named Luke's fish that name. They matter-of-factly said, "Because he destroys things Mom."

Here are the kids making fishy faces this morning

The awesome thing about these fish is that Grace really wants to feed them too. So not only has Isaac been cleaning up the clothes off the floor, but Grace has kicked it into high gear as well. She REALLY wants to feed the fish too. So I told her she could if she could be responsible for her clothes as well, then she could feed the fish too. It has thus far been awesome. The kids know I have no attachment to the fish and that the threat of flushing them is real. I know...I'm a mean mom. So, we will see how long this lasts. My guess is that Luke will get into them at some point and do something to kill them. You'll get that post later when/if that happens. But for now, the kids have their first pet and the Mom is loving having PJ's and clothes picked up off the FLOOR!! Woohoo! Who woulda known that spending less that $2 would bring me such happiness!?!

Luke's Supper Prayer

We captured Luke praying for our food at supper time. It was too cute to not share. ENJOY! :-)

Picture Giggle

Several weeks ago Chris was trying to capture a picture of all four kids smiling at the same time. Now if any of you have this many kids you know the challenge he was taking upon himself. I decided to go help him out. I said, "Here, I'll take the picture and you make them laugh." Boy did we have fun. To this day I don't exactly know what Daddy did to make them laugh...but it worked. Well...almost worked. Jonathan was more scared than anything. Needless to say, it made for a funny video. So I thought I'd share the picture of the first time Daddy was silly as well as the video of the kids giggling. Who doesn't want to hear kids giggle right?

Like I said, this was the first picture I captured of them seeing Daddy do it for the first time. Chris didn't know I was videoing them at the time. He thought I was snapping pictures. Now here's the video...

We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did and that you got a few giggles from it. Hey..whatever it takes to keep...LAUGHING THROUGH LIFE right? :-)

Revive Massage Give Away!!

I am giving away a free 30 minute massage! Everyone who "likes" my Revive Massage facebook page will be entered into a drawing. The winner will be announced on October 1st! Go, click, win!! :-) **Be sure to click the actual "like" button on the Revive Massage page. Those are the only ones who will be entered in the drawing.**

My Morning Giggle

Many of you know that I would not consider myself a morning person. I can't remember very many days of my life that I ever just popped right out of bed and loved getting up. (I'm sure it doesn't help that I rarely get the amount of sleep that I should have) I also can't remember ever waking up and laughing the minute I opened my eyes. Well, that has changed now. Every time I replay this morning in my head I laugh.

To set the stage you must know a few things. Isaac and Grace had spent the night at Grandma's house and so Luke was the first kid up this morning. Now, up until the past few weeks we would double gate Luke's room so he could not wander off and get into things (OR OUT OF THE HOUSE!!) while we all slept. However, Luke has been getting better about not getting into stuff and has mellowed out a bit. Chris has been doing school work very early in the morning as well so he is up and awake if Luke were to try something sneaky. So, we've been testing out not doing the double gate thing at night. Luke has done wonderful I must say. He's almost to the point where I am starting to think he may have graduated from gate school! Woohoo!

So, as I mentioned this morning Luke was the first one up. He came into my room and woke me up. When I opened my eyes, I saw the cutest little boy ever. He had his alligator pj's on, his blanket in one hand, and a huge 3 foot long flag in the other hand and was holding it at about a 75 degree angle. He sees me open my eyes and says very seriously, "Mommy....eat." I started laughing at the sight I was seeing. Of course he wants to tell me again that he wants to eat. He says this every morning over and over until I get out of bed and make him breakfast. So he says, "Mommy....eat." I got up right away as I was laughing and said, "Ok Luke, we'll go eat." He giggles and gets real excited and says, "Yay!!!" I don't know what possessed him to grab the flag that morning. It was supposed to be for our home school room. The kids must have gotten a hold of it and were playing with it. The thing is about as big as he is. I don't think I'll ever be able to take the image of my 2 year old son holding a flag, a blanket, and a very serious face saying, "Mommy...EAT!" Guess it was probably one of those moments you had to be there. But the best part is....I got to wake up laughing! :-)

P.S. (Maybe tomorrow I can post a picture on here of what I saw) :-)

3 Things You Should Never Combine

(Many of you probably saw my facebook post last week about eating icecream. I thought I'd share with ya'll the REST of the story.)

My husband and I made the first icecream cones of the summer for a fun treat that evening. Chris had just brought the older kids upstairs to put them to bed and I thought I would enjoy a little down time. My baby was a little fussy so I thought I'd watch a little TV as I sat on the couch with him in my lap with one arm and the cone in my other hand. I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of my cone until I realized it was dripping out the bottom. And guess what it was dripping on? Yep, my sweet little baby boy's head!! Ahhh!!  I looked down and saw 2 huge drippings and one was about to make a major plunge down the side of his head to his ear. What was a girl to do? I had one hand filled with a baby and the other holding the cone. No one else was in the room to help. Well, what would you do? Yep, you guessed it. I leaned forward and slurped the icecream from my sweet little boy's head. (I can hear all your EWWWWW'S ya know...shhhh.) The thing I was most bummed about was the fact that he had just had a bath! Oh well...it just seems like they never can stay clean for long. I was sorry that I just happened to be the one to "ruin" the clean baby. So the moral of the story...never combine TV, a baby, and a tired mommy eating a cone. :-)

The Library Book Goblin

Well,  well, well… where do I even begin. Ok, so let’s just start out by saying that my daughter has some serious issues with books.  Library books in particular. She just loves taking them everywhere she goes. If any parents are out there reading this you know what this means. When it comes time to return them…they are nowhere to be found. We used to have this really good system where they stayed in one place and were never moved unless we read them. Well, my daughter has resorted from carrying around one or two books to the entire bag of library books (which is usually somewhere between 10 and 15 books). She basically pulls the bag along because it’s so heavy! It’s quite the sight.  Now Grace takes naps in our room. This, as you can imagine, presents another problem…can you guess? Yes, we find them all over our bed and around our bed.  So now that you can see my beginning distaste for library books, I will now share with you my dilemma.

It all started when my mom took the kids for an overnighter at her house. Grace knows (or should have known) that library books do not leave the house. Well, she brought a whole bag of her “stuff” out to Grandma and Papa’s house. Little did I know she left with several library books.  When it came time to return the books to the library we found all but one book. Yes, that ONE blasted book!!! Ahhh!! I practically turned my house upside down to find this book. I’m convinced that there is a Library book Goblin that comes and steals library books! And for some reason he picks our house just about every week! Well,  I finally resorted to realizing I was probably going to have to buy this book. In my mind I figured it would be way cheaper to purchase a book off of Amazon than pay a ridiculous price at the library for a book. So I went ahead and found a used book for a little over $3. I went to the library and explained what had happened and asked if it would work for me to just replace it. No problem. Yes…resolved.

I went ahead and began looking for more books with my kids. As I was going to check out the new books the librarian told me that there was a problem. They told me the book I needed to replace was hardcover and I had brought them a soft cover book. Now, here’s where my blood starts to boil. Ok, I know that I know that I know that the book was soft cover. I remember specifically thinking, “Hmm…this book will never last at the library with kids. It’s soft cover. I never get soft cover books from the library. That’s weird.” OK, there is a .0001% chance I could be wrong. But I highly doubt it. I explained to her that I was positive it was a soft cover and went through the thinking I mentioned above. They wouldn’t accept it. Their computer was what they went by. I said, “So basically…you don’t believe me.”  They told me to replace the hard cover book it would be $14.00.  Ok, if you’re anything like me and have a strong sense of justice, and right and wrong then you would be feeling a little frustrated at this point as well.  I told them I would go search Grandma’s house myself (since it seems like Grandma’s just don’t search for a library book like Mom’s do..heehee) and to renew the book for now.

So, I am fuming as I drive to Dalton to my parents house today, not only because there is a fee that is involved in replacing a type of book that I/we did not lose, but because I am now wasting more money in gas (from our gas hog truck because the van is broke)!!! THIS BOOK IS GETTING SPENDY!! This is getting ridiculous! All because I don’t want to pay $14.00 and my pride wants to prove to them that I am RIGHT!! I think I am mostly upset because they basically are questioning my integrity!! Anyone else out there ever feel this way?? Please?? Am I alone?  $14.00 may not seem like a lot of money to some people. This would be a non-issue for most of you I’m sure. But when you have an $850 vehicle repair in the same week the dollar is so much more huge! (And again...I’m sure $850 is pennies to some out there too…not us…yet! J) 

Did I find the book at my parents house? NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! Now, this has become what seemed like a wasted trip. But God knows! I am still determined to not give up yet and to FIND this book!

Now, on a good note (which I know you are all waiting for) I was able to meet some of my mom’s friends that were up for the weekend while I searched for the book.  Mom just had to show off the grandkids. Turns out…one of them needed a massage! Yepper doo! AND turns out …we had wonderful fellowship! AND it turns out… I invited them to church and they are coming tomorrow! I’m super excited. So all that to say, as Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” If I had never went out to my mom and dad’s to look for the book I would have never met these dear sweet people, they wouldn’t be enjoying our church service tomorrow, and I wouldn’t have the massage $ in my pocket either.  Who knows…maybe this book was supposed to be lost after all. J

But as I mentioned I’m still not giving up!! I’m still frustrated by the whole situation…just not fuming any more. I am determined that we WILL find this book and not have to pay $14.00 and *cough* that I was right.  So, if anyone out there sees the Library Book Goblin out there…could you please tell him to bring our book back? I promise to leave him some cookies and milk…just please tell him to bring it back soon! Thank You! J

Yes...I am homeschooling!!!

Ok so, it's official. I am homeschooling! I know, I know...you all think I'm crazy. But didn't we already establish that by all my other posts? :-) As many of you know the desire of my heart was to send my kids to our local private Christian School. As we were praying about it my husband had said that he really felt that it was the Lord's will for us to homeschool. He then went on to mention several reasons behind it as well. Even if the funds were provided for us for our children to attend this particular school, he still felt that it was the Lord's will for us to homeschool our children. I personally did not see the light on this matter at the same time as him. However, I was very glad he communicated that to me the way he did. It's good to know you are in the Lord's will than to be wishy-washy and wonder if you're doing the right thing. I would rather spend 1 day in the will of the Lord than 1000 out of it. I told him that if it's the Lord's will then He will give me the grace and tools I need to do it. (Oh and by the way, the funds were offered to us to send our kids)

I was determined that we wouldn't just do it at the kitchen table. I know so many people do that but I personally want my kids to have some fun with school.  So I created the other half of Jonathan's room into our homeschool room (since there really was no other place to do it). To me...this was more fun. I have 3 little kid desks for the kids to sit in and a teacher desk as well. We have a white board, and some decorations hung up as well to make it look somewhat like a classroom. Someday, if we are still here and still desiring to homeschool, we may fix up our basement and make a room down there. We are just taking it one year at a time. (After today I guess I should say that we're taking it one DAY at a time)

So, today we had our first "official" day. Boy oh boy! We are in for a trip to say the least! I'm sure the more we get used to it the easier it will become. However, it seemed very overwhelming to me today as Jonathan (5 months 2 days ago) was crying and Luke (2 years) was desiring our full attention as well. The actual schooling part went ok. I'm sure as we go I will figure out solutions for some of the problems I'm running into. I'm not giving up YET! I told my husband I would "try" it. No guarantees.

I think the key thing to homeschooling is having the vision before you as to WHY you are choosing to do it. If the vision is not laid out before you as to why you are choosing to do what you do, then I believe that is where many people give up. For me...the vision isn't the problem right now. It's the other kiddos-that would be the main reason I would give up. I am not sure how I'm going to keep up on the rest of life since I was already feeling pretty maxed out but I know it will all work out if it's supposed to be. I'm a hard worker and know it's doable. I'm definitely going to be making some extra sacrifices that I wasn't sure I was quite ready for. I won't go into details as to more reason's why we are choosing to do this on this post.  If you are interested in learning more about our reasoning please let me know and I'd be happy to chat with you! :-) So for now...the 4 loads of laundry, the piled up dishes, and kids are all calling (or should I say SCREAMING) my name. Toodles :-)

Luke's Emergency Room Visit

So Saturday we were cleaning out our porch and of course Luke had to be part of the action. We showed him how sidewalk chalk worked and he squealed with delight playing with it for his first time. He would draw something and then say, "Daddy...yook...BIG ONE!" But besides playing with the sidewalk chalk he also had a few bumps on his head that morning as well as a couple mosquito bites. We didn't think much of it until lunch time when we noticed it looked a little larger than normal on his forehead. By supper time it was much more noticeable and Chris started calling him, "Worf" (from Star Trek I guess).

Luke at supper time with a mouth full of milk!

Again, as the evening progressed we tried to figure out what was going on with Luke. I remembered one time when I was 16 I was in a car accident with my siblings and my sister had a big bonk on her forehead like that. It was a giant bruise that slowly moved down her face. We teased her and told her she looked like the Beast from "Beauty and the Beast." Now here my very own son was starting to look like the Beast and we didn't know why. Chris even tried to get Luke to make the "Worf" noise (whatever that is) and tried to get him to walk like him too. (Man what we do for a laugh) We decided to see if it would be better in the morning. That night he woke up crying and itching his forehead. We comforted him and he fell right back asleep. But one look at his face showed me it wasn't getting better. My mind started racing trying to figure out what this was. Could it be West Nile Virus? Could he have gotten bit by a spider while we were cleaning out the porch? I had no idea but my husband reassured me that we just needed to trust the Lord. So much easier to say that do sometimes :-)

The next morning he was up at 7:00. I took one look at his face and we decided he needed to get checked out because this was not getting any better. (You don't exactly want to go to the ER unless something is really bad. But I was freaking out looking at him and seeing how he could barely even open one eye.)

Luke's sad face while he is getting shoes on to go to the E.R.

We grabbed a granola bar for him to eat on the way and Daddy and Luke headed to the E.R. Chris said that ER doctor didn't know what was wrong with him but that he was glad they didn't make him feel stupid for bringing him in. They gave him some Benadryl and an antibiotic just to be safe in case it was some type of infection.

So, all that to say, we still aren't quite sure what happened. But we are leaning toward the mother of all mosquito's taking a chunk out of his forehead. It is now 2 days later and he looks much better. I think the Benadryl has really been helping. We are so glad to see improvement and know our little boy isn't miserable. Oh the joys of having kids! :-)

Giggles for Everyone!!!

This was just too cute to not share. All the kids decided it was their mission to make Jonathan giggle. Lukey went a little too far....

Ok...so was it just me or was this funny? :-)

Looking forward to the friendship of my 6 year old

So a couple days ago I had a rough day and came to a point where I broke down to tears. I haven't done that in quite awhile... especially in front of the kids. My dearest mother-in-law came over and scooped up the three older kids for the afternoon so I could get caught up on life and put my head back on straight. That evening my Mom spur of the moment decided she wanted to take my older two kids with her down to Tracy, MN to visit my Grandma over night. As they were traveling home I got to talk to them on the phone. My kids sounded like they had a blast. But boy did that have news to share... Grandma got pulled over by a cop!! I got quite the ear full about that! They have never seen that happen before. HA! Anyways, as they were traveling home Isaac wanted to tell me about everything. Then after he got done sharing all his stories with me he moves on to ask how I'm doing. Here's our conversation below:
ISAAC (real chipper and cute): So Mom...how are you doing?
ME: I'm doing good Isaac. How are you doing?
ISAAC: I'm good. So...are you handling Lukey ok?
ME (trying to hold my laugh in): Yep. We're doing great.
ISAAC (still real chipper): So have you cried at all today?
ME: Nope. I'm doing good.

And then at this point I burst out laughing. I couldn't believe I was having this conversation with my 6 year old. It was great! It was so cute to see my little boy's heart of concern for his Mommy and trying to be an equal peer to me! I wish I could express to you just how he asked it because that was half the cuteness of it! I look forward to his older years where we have more conversations like this and actually become friends! But for now...I like that he's still my little boy. :-)

Seeing the Stars

How can I not start a blog entry off without sharing what Luke's latest adventures have been. :-)  About two weeks ago Chris figured out a way to keep Luke from being able to go outside at will. He used bungee cords to keep the patio door shut. Well, last week Luke figured out the bungee cords as I was trying to get the dishes done.

As I went over to the door to tighten the bungee cords to see if that would help. Within a minute the little stinker had pushed up the bench to “help” me with dishes.

Right then, Jonathan started to cry and the other two started fighting all at the same time. It was pretty intense.(And some of you saw the pictures I posted on facebook the other day of him getting into my lipstick as well as pulling the keys off my keyboard while I was in the shower...of course.)

 I know some day I will probably miss this but on days like that, I really can’t possibly imagine how I will miss the craziness and intensity that my children can sometimes bring to my life.

Although my life can be intense and crazy at times, when I take a moment and see pictures of my kids (from even a month ago) it melts my heart and I feel so incredibly blessed. I’m so blessed to have four beautiful, healthy children who will some day grow up to love God and change this world.  I’m so blessed to be married to an awesome husband who loves to laugh thru life with me. (AND LAUGH LOUDLY WITH I must mention) I’m so blessed to have friends to enjoy life with. Yes, we will have our trials…but they are nothing in comparison to how richly God has blessed us. People are so precious and I am truly, truly blessed to be able to have the relationships I have in my life.

When I was growing up my Dad and I did not get along. He would pick on me more than the other kids and call me terrible names that I won’t mention along with much more. It’s all in the past now and I’ve completely forgiven him... and our relationship has been reconciled. But one thing he used to tell me over and over after I was saved and filled with such joy from the Holy Spirit as a teenager is, “You’ll never make it in the real world. You just wait. You’ll never make it.” My dad thought that once real life hit me I wouldn’t be able to survive. I think he thought that once “real life” hit me my joy would be gone and it would be a slap in the face or something…that I was living in a fairy tale world.  I was just thinking about that for some reason today. I haven’t thought about it in years. But I do believe that I can now say that “life” has hit me. Real life with real problems…and you know what? I’M MAKIN’ IT! AND not only am I making it, I’m LOVING IT! Ok let’s be real…loving it most days…heehee.  I believe life is what we make it. There’s a quote that says something like this, “Two men looked out prison bars…one saw sand and the other saw stars.” I can choose on days to see sand or stars. I pray I will continue to always look to see the stars because some days it’s hard to get my head out of the sand. My heart is so full with how blessed I am. Although we must make the choices in life to get to where we want to be, and have the life we want to have, I must give all the glory to my Lord, Jesus Christ. Because it is only through and by Him that I am even able to have the strength, joy and peace throughout each day. He is the one who guides us to make the choices we make. He is the one who deserves all glory and praise. I am so incredibly humbled by my Father God and His mercies on my life. For His patience and faithfulness to me even when I am not. I am just so blessed. Can I say it again? I’M BLESSED!!

Anyways, I better go get my dishes done before my kiddos wake up.  I just wanted to take a moment and express the fullness of my heart. Love you all! ~Danielle~


P.S. I reorganized my "line of the day" page. It will be easier to check back on to see new ones now with the latest posts at the top of the page.

Houdini... in an hour-and-a-half

It’s nap time and the thought of getting things done right now is really tugging on me. But, I’m going to take a break and sit. Yes, sit at my computer. Ahhhh. After my morning you’ll see why I’m so excited to just sit. As most of you know my life has become even more eventful to say the least. I’d like to share with you how an hour-and-a-half of my morning went. And it all involves my almost 2 year old son Luke…aka HOUDINI! Seriously, this kid is going to give me grey hairs!

Turning the light on and off.

Yesterday he climbed up on the back counter with no stool/chair. I don't know how he did it!

Oh and for the record.... below is a picture of something Houdini hasn't managed to get out of yet:

His booster seat! HA!



 As I was sitting on the couch feeding Jonathan this morning I realize things suddenly got quiet. I told Grace to go check on Luke and she comes running in saying that he was jumping on the tramp. Great. He unlocked the door and went out …AGAIN! Grrr. So when I was done feeding Jonathan I brought him in and he was soaked from the waist down because in the morning the trampoline is WET! I changed his clothes and proceeded to get Grace ready for her program that she had today at preschool. I was trying to do her hair when Luke decides to dump the cereal bowl that was left on the table onto the floor. I really didn’t know milk could splatter that far until today. It was EVERYWHERE! So, I cleaned that up and went yet again on Grace’s hair. After everyone was out the door this morning I was left with Jonathan and Luke.

It was now time for the next adventure of taking a shower. The BLASTED SHOWER!! So of course I remove the soap dispenser and any other type of dispenser I could find that Luke could possibly get into while I was in the shower. I bring Jonathan in the bathroom with me and Luke sits next to him on a stool and starts sucking his thumb. My hopes were high. I thought, “Oh here’s a sweet little boy who’s just being so mellow now and maybe he’ll just sit here next to Jonathan while I take a shower.” I said to Luke, “Oh are you going to be a good boy today and sit there while Mommy takes a shower?” He replies, “Shower.” So I get in the shower and it is quiet the whole time. I’m thinking I have it made. Luke finally is going to be good the whole shower. As I was finishing up and ready to open the curtain I thought, “Man, I wonder what I’m going to find when I open the curtain. This is like a game show…what’s behind curtain number 1?” Oh if only the anticipation I was feeling would be the anticipation you would feel if you were going to win something cool…I’d have it made. But no, this was a different anticipation. I threw the shower curtain open with such high hopes, only to find Luke had somehow managed to find the baby wash. And wouldn’t ya know the baby wash has a push down dispenser. Can you guess what I saw? Yes, Luke had taken the soap and matted it in his hair. But this time, not only had he matted his own hair, he decided to matt down Jonathan’s head with the soap too. *sigh* It was also all over his shirt. Time for change of clothes number three.

I dunked his head under the faucet as he screamed. I then tried to finish getting ready. During the course of just trying to dry my hair I was cracked in the head with the closet door, found Houdini downstairs about to go outside, and pulled him off of a laundry basket pushed up to the dresser. After getting ready I gave Jonathan a bath to get the soap out of his hair. While giving Jonathan a bath Luke found a cup and was reaching down in the tub getting himself wet as well as my entire back wet while my hands were full holding Jonathan in the tub. Time for Luke’s change of clothes number four. Luke was in his 4^th set of clothes for the day BEFORE 9:30 IN THE MORNING!!! Ahhhh!!!

I do have to mention that at one point in drying my hair I got to witness this. :-)

Finally, after we were all ready I went to Target with the two little ones and invested in an expensive gate that Luke wouldn’t be able to climb over. I cringed at buying something so expensive but I decided I need my sanity while I nurse Jonathan. I didn’t realize how stressed out I feel when I feed Jonathan until the other day when Chris had take Luke with him to the store real quick to pick something up. I was starting to freak and wonder where he was. Then I remembered he was with Chris and felt this huge weight lift from me.  I was able to feed him in peace and at that point I realized how stressed out I had been this whole time when I try to feed Jonathan. The gate was a must.

I make it to Grace’s program just in time. Well, actually I was late. I thought the program started at 10:30 but it really started at 10:15. So when I showed up at 10:22ish I thought I was early. Nope. They were ALL WAITING FOR ME!!! I walked in the front part of the sanctuary door (at the Naz) and all eyes are on me and all was quiet. Then the teacher says something about how they can now start. Oh my gosh! I don’t get embarrassed easily but I must say I was embarrassed.

Me and Grace after her program in her classroom.

Is anyone else ready for a nap after reading this?

So my project for the afternoon was installing this HEAVENLY gate that Luke will not be able to climb over…IN JESUS NAME!

How long do you think the paint stick will keep him from going out our French doors?

 I’m looking forward to him not being able to go outside or on the counters in the kitchen any more. And now, it is time for me to feed Jonathan again. Oh happy day! J  

BAD Habits and other WONDERFUL Adventures!

Well, it’s been an interesting couple of weeks. All of my children have brought their own individual adventures to us. I’ve been thinking about my past a lot lately and if someone would have came up to me 10 years ago and told me these are the issues my kids would be dealing with at this season of life I probably would have laughed in their face. I will expound by starting with my oldest son Isaac.

Oh my dear son Isaac. *sigh* Isaac for some reason has been chewing on all his clothes. Yes, CHEWING! He has been wrecking the collars and some sleeves of some of his shirts. He totally ruined the zipper of his nice winter coat as well of countless other t-shirts. We have been nagging him constantly to quit doing it. So one day I came up with the idea to put something that would taste gross on his shirt to help cure this addiction he faces. We decided we’d try vinegar. Well, my husband was getting Isaac ready for school in the morning and decided to DOUSE his shirt in vinegar. I was not there to witness this on this particular morning. Isaac didn’t realize vinegar was so stinky and said, “Oh what’s that smell…Oh Daddy, I smell something.” Chris’ response was, “It’s your upper lip.” LOL! Then he explained to him that he put vinegar on his shirt to help him quit chewing on it. Isaac did wonderfully that day and didn’t chew on his clothes. Imagine that. Well, the next day I was actually there when I saw him apply the vinegar. I thought he just dabbed his finger in the vinegar and kind of rubbed it on his collar. Nope. Not my husband. Chris said he didn’t want to “touch” the stuff. (Hold on I’m rolling my eyes) He POURED IT ON!  So poor Isaac had this shirt that was drenched, several inches past his collar, with stinky smelly vinegar. I didn’t like that he put so much on and so we got a different shirt that morning and I used a dropper to apply the vinegar to just the collar.

After Isaac left for school I emailed his teacher to apologize for the raunchy smell that was lingering with my son and probably smelling up her whole classroom and explained the situation. It wasn’t until about 2:00 that afternoon that I got a response and this is what it said,

“That is SO funny!  I have been sniffing around the room (next to him) wondering what is smelling like vinegar in our classroom!!!!   Oh I am going to be laughing over this for a LONG time!”

We laughed for quite awhile about that one. We decided after 2 days of vinegar that that probably wasn’t the best solution and ended it. Isaac hasn’t chewed on his shirt but maybe one time since. HOPEFULLY, he’ll continue to remember. But again, 10 years ago this would be the last thing on my mind I thought I would have to deal with as a parent. Oh but that’s not all. We have another child with bad habits.

Grace. Yes, our sweet little princess. She LOVES to constantly bite her nails (and pick her nose but we’ll deal with that later). Her nails are so chewed off that she can sometimes cause bleeding!! So we found this stuff you can put on your nails that tastes really nasty. And I mean REALLY NASTY. I applied this very liberally to Grace’s fingernails the other night. I told her I do it with her and put it on my nails too. That was a wrong decision. I barely got a taste of that stuff from eating something and licked my finger and I about puked. It was HORRIBLE. Well, apparently the next morning Grace was picking the stuff off or something. Luke was by her and she claims he put one of her picked off fingernails in his mouth. EWWWWW!!!! All I remember is being out of it on the couch from being up all night with Jonathan and couldn’t hardly function. I opened my eyes to see Luke coming towards me PUKING!! AHHH!!! Really? Again, not something I thought I’d be dealing with before I was married and had kids.

And then there’s Luke. Well, Luke gets his own blogging entries quite often so I really don’t need to say much. The things that I used to write about him getting into seem to be a daily occurrence now. It’s nothing new and special for him to dump an entire box of cereal out, or get into just about anything he wants now. It almost seems futile now for me to even stop him. To say he keeps me busy would be quite the understatement I think.

And lastly, is Jonathan. Yes, even my dear little one who will be 5 weeks old tomorrow has caused some interesting adventures. Adventures full of him screaming and sleepless nights. I won’t bore you with a ton of detail but I thought he had severe tummy aches. Ones to the point of screaming so badly that you would have thought I was cutting off his finger. But then I realized it had to be something more because he wasn’t able to eat for more than 10 seconds without pulling away screaming (nursing or bottle). The light finally went on in my head that he probably had acid reflux. Sure enough, within a day of being on Zantac he was a completely different kid! Finally he was sleeping through the night again like a baby his age should be. My mom came and spent the night a couple of nights throughout this because I just couldn’t go another night of having NO SLEEP! I have to say one thing I’ve learned in all this is that SLEEP MAKES A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE! I’m amazed at how much sleep can make my whole outlook on life so different. Without sleep, I didn’t know how I was going to face the day and tears lingered. (You could have told me your cat died and I probably would have started bawling) With it, I thought I could conquer anything. I’m so thankful for those nights when she came. It was truly amazing. I never realized how valuable sleep was to my perspective and am definitely going to make more of an effort in the future to make sure I get my rest when I actually have that luxury.

So, these are the adventures I’ve had this past week with my children. I’m so glad things seem to be going uphill now. Especially with Jonathan…things seemed to be getting worse there for awhile with him and his screaming bouts. As I mentioned, 10 years ago I woulnd't have pictured adventures like this. But, I am thankful for adventures because without them I wouldn't have something to laugh at later on. :-) So what’s the moral of my adventures? I don’t know…maybe if you’re  going to have kids someday just be ready for ANYTHING because you never know what life will bring you…but when it does…be ready to LAUGH! J

Adjusting

I’ve been wanting to blog for awhile to answer most of your questions and give you an idea of how our life has been over the past two weeks. Problem is, I’m having trouble deciding what to share and not share, as well as finding the time to do this. For example, in these past two sentences that I’ve typed I’ve had to deal with Luke 3 times!!! So, my writing is pretty touch and go. (Sorry for the randomness.)

Basically in a nutshell, our life is pretty chaotic right now to be quite real and honest. The kids are doing wonderfully with Jonathan. I am so so thankful for that. I’ll start with Luke. My biggest fear was that Luke would be mean to Jonathan and that I wouldn’t be able to set Jonathan down for fear of Luke messing with him. But really, Luke has been so great! In fact, sometimes when I’m nursing Jonathan, Luke will come sit by us, start to suck his thumb, and then take his other hand and pet Jonathan’s head real sweet and gentle the whole time. This is definitely a different change for me considering when I brought Grace home from the hospital, Isaac took one look at her and spit his crackers all over her. There wasn’t a day that went by that he wasn’t mean to her. So for now, it is very refreshing to see a 22 month old be so sweet and gentle to the “bay-biEEE.” Luke’s downfall is how he gets into EVERYTHING! I thought he perhaps kicked it up a notch once this baby was born…but I’m realizing he’s just the same. I just can’t stop him like I used to because of my hands being full with the baby and his needs. However, he did learn to climb the gates and has learned to dump anything out that will help him “reach” his goal. Literally. He will dump a trash can over, empty a laundry basket, find a stool, or any other toy that can act as a stool for him just to get to what he wants that’s “high up.”

I almost stopped this happening today by mere seconds!

A brand new box of Kix cereal dumped out!

It was extremely challenging my fist week home because Luke wasn’t feeling well. He was so overtired and wanted to cuddle the whole time. Which I totally wanted to do but just wasn’t able to as much as we both wanted. One day I had Luke in one arm, Jonathan in the other, and Grace decided to take cereal in the living room and pour it in a bowl ON THE COUCH!  (What’s up with my kids and cereal??) I started freaking out on her because she never had permission to have cereal, AND she was trying to pour it in the living room ON THE COUCH! At that moment I looked up to see my friend who had just showed up to our house for her lunch break. I said exhausted, “Hi…I’m maxed out.” She laughed and said, “I can tell.”

Grace has loved having the new baby home. She has started playing with her dolls a lot more now. All her doll and girl stuff is in Jonathan’s room (since someday it will be her room) so many times when I come to lay Jonathan down I see stuff like this by his crib:

Don't ask me why the crutches are there?!?!

All her dolls are lined up along the wall.

She has also been feeding her babies differently now too.

She loves to hold baby Jonathan and asks to hold him all the time. She has been quite the helper and has learned how to pull Luke down from things to help Mommy out. Only once has curiosity gotten the best of her. She cut Luke's HAIR!! Here's a chunk she managed to free from his head with the scissors I asked her to put away:

Isaac loves holding the new baby too. He has really been a big helper too. The other day when Chris and I were feeling pretty stressed out, he went upstairs to make all the beds for us. It was so sweet.  He also put all the library books by the bed for Daddy. Daddy always gets upset because he has to hunt down the library books at bed time every night. Isaac says to Chris, “Yeah Daddy, I even put the library books by the bed so you wouldn’t have to HUNT THEM DOWN.” Now when he said, “HUNT THEM DOWN,” he did AIR QUOTES AROUND THOSE WORDS AND EMPHASIZED THEM!!! Chris died laughing. What Kindergartner knows how to use air quotes correctly? (It’s just not as funny trying to type it here though as telling it)

And now for my husband. Well, he’s pretty behind in school. The week of the baby being born really put him back. To say he’s maxed out would probably be an understatement. He feels bad because he wants to help me out but he really can’t because of school. And I feel bad because I wish I could help him out more but I can’t either.  We both pretty much feel like we are pretty maxed out. But he will be done for the summer here in May and that will be so refreshing. He amazes me with his commitment to getting up at 4:30 in the morning to do homework and spend time in the word before he goes to work. He also stays up pretty late too. So between his lack of sleep and mine we are both pretty tired. But God’s grace is here for us for such a time as this. Someday we’ll look back on this intense season and laugh more about it than we are now…I’m sure of it.

This spring weather has been such a blessing as well. Isaac and Grace have been playing outside from the moment Isaac gets home from school until supper time. It’s been so wonderful! How can spring not be any mom’s favorite season??? Seeing Luke jump on the trampoline cracks us up so much too. He’s so little and he has no fear. He just flops around on it like it’s nothing. The trampoline has been a Godsend for sure!

Oh and I almost forgot…JONATHAN! Ha! He’s adjusting perfectly to our family. His head has only been stepped on one time by Luke!! Woohoo! LOL! Seriously though… he’s doing great. He had an appointment last Friday and was already at 7 lbs 11 oz. He’s gained pretty much an entire pound before he was three weeks old! He doesn’t feel quite so little any more L  He’s absolutely perfect and we are so thankful for our little blessing. (He’s definitely spoiled too!) Luke is the only one in the family allowed to call him anything other than Jonathan since he can’t pronounce his name yet. It’s so cute when he says it…. “Shawn-knee” He also pronounces the word “pappy” incorrectly. (We call the pacifier a “pappy” thanks to Victoria Robertson when she lived with us when Isaac was born) Anyways, he calls it a “Happy.” So anytime Jonathan is crying he says, “Haa-peee” and tries to shove it in his poor little mouth.

Well, that’s pretty much it in a nutshell. We are all loving our little addition and I especially am so thankful to not be pregnant anymore!!!! I forgot how nice and easy life’s tasks are when you don’t have the huge belly in front of you...like giving massages! God is so faithful and we are so thankful for his grace and provision. Thank you as well to those of you who brought us meals!! What a blessing! We are so blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful people. MY CUP OVERFLOWS!!!

My little manipulative preacher

The other day Grandma Deb took the two older kids out to her house for the morning to play and hang out with them and make a snowman. Now because of grandma's job she works with many international people and has many knic-knack's from all over the world that she has received from them as gifts. The kids LOVE looking at all Grandma's cool stuff and always ask her if they can have one of her neat things. And of course the answer is always 'no.' Well, here is the rest of their conversation Isaac had with Grandma that morning:

ISAAC: Grandma...are you ever going to let us have any of this?
GRANDMA: Yeah...someday
ISAAC: Well when?
GRANDMA: When you're 17.

Apparently that must have sufficed him because he was quiet for awhile. Grandma thought, 'boy he has no clue how old 17 is.' Then Isaac comes back a few minutes later and says to Grandma:
ISAAC: Grandma....you know what the bible says?
GRANDMA: What?
ISAAC: It's better to give than to receive.

If this was my son's first sermon I guess he's got a ways to go!

The rest of Jonathan's story and a little coming home giggle.

FINALLY!!! I am able to blog about the rest of Jonathan’s story. I’d like to tell you the rest of what happened as well as coming home and the kids’ reaction to him. I think I last left off with his breathing being a little bit fast and them saying they may have to delay his discharge if it didn’t come down. Well, as I mentioned I struggled with this the most of anything it seemed. The next morning as I was waking up I began thinking about Jonathan’s breathing again, and I just felt like the Lord spoke to me, “Danielle, I’ve already taken care of it.” So from the time I got up whenever my mind would start to think about it as I was getting ready I would just say out loud, “The Lord has already taken care of it!” As I drove all the way to Sanford, I would just say that over and over and began to thank Him for it. No matter what report they were going to give me I just knew that I was prepared in knowing that the Lord had already taken care of it, and I didn’t need to fret about it. When I got there I had forgotten about it and I decided to hold Jonathan and just cuddle and rock him since I could do that now that he was in a crib.

Jonathan in his crib at Sanford

As I was rocking him I was looking at the breathing number and it was totally below the number they wanted it below the whole time. I was so excited. Again, I hadn’t asked how his breathing was or anything and didn’t hear anything about it until there was a shift change and one nurse was informing the other nurse about Jonathan. She said to her, “Well, I’ve been putting that his breathing rate is normal every now and then it spikes a tiny bit but it’s pretty normal now.” It was so encouraging to hear and at that point I realized I had forgotten all about asking someone about it until I heard them conversing. And it was really special to me that the Lord had spoken that to my heart beforehand as well.

So basically, from the time they took the ventilator out Jonathan just made huge leaps! He was able to get circumcised there and slept through the whole thing!! He also nursed wonderfully and is my best nurser yet! He was able to be discharged on Sunday and it was great! I had two more doctor’s comment on his quick recovery. One doctor said, “We are all just so surprised and talking about his quick recovery. He was a pretty sick little boy when he got here and he just really turned around.” And every time they would say something like this I was able to give God all the glory. I would tell them that that was exactly what we prayed for and how God was working in him. I don’t know what they thought, but if God was going to get glory from this I was going to take every opportunity given to me to share about Him. It was so funny because to us a week seemed painfully long. But to them a week was so quick. Over and over, they kept saying how usually something like that took so much more time. We just praise the Lord over all of it and are so thankful that the desire of our hearts was met in that it was a quicker recovery than normal and that the doctors and nurses were amazed at his progress. GLORY TO GOD! THANK YOU JESUS!

Discharge day felt like it took forever but finally Jonathan and I were headed home! The minute they took the last cord off my baby I felt such freedom and joy! The whole way home all I could do was just thank the Lord for his goodness in all this and was so overjoyed that I was finally getting to go home. I must admit though…it was the longest trip from Fargo EVER!!! I came home to quite the mess but I didn’t care. I was just thankful that Daddy was able to take such good care of the kids for a couple of days.

This is what happens when Mommy is gone for a week!

It was nice though because the kids were all napping when I got home and Daddy got to hold Jonathan for the first time without all his wires and cords attached. When the kids woke up we had quite the interesting time. It was precious really. They were introduced to him in the order they woke up from their naps. Isaac got to hold him first and he said things like, “Hello baby Jonathan. Welcome to the family! You’re part of our family now.” It was really sweet.

Then Luke held him and would point to his different body parts saying the names as he did so. When we took him off his lap he got mad and said, “HOLD IT!!!” It was kind of funny. (We didn't get a picture though)

 Then Gracie girl woke up and she loved it as well. She too said, “Hello baby Jonathan. Welcome to our family. I’m your big sister.” It was really cute.

Then came the funniest thing. Grace (4½) says to me, “Mommy, can I feed baby Jonathan?” I said, “Well if I ever give him a bottle you can help me feed him. But Mommy is going to feed him with her baby feeders.” Isaac (6) very innocently says, “Well can I help hold them up?” At this point Chris and I both turned our heads as quick as we could because we were dying with laughter and didn’t want Isaac to see we were laughing at him since this was so innocent. Chris got control faster than I did and responded, “No buddy, Mommy will do that by herself.” Then Grace chips in, “Yeah….cause they’re privacy.” LOL!!! Oh my goodness... it was great! I can’t wait to tell them this story when they are older.

From the time I got home until today I feel like all I have been doing is playing catch up and just trying to get my house back in order and papers under control. I finally feel like things have settled down a bit. However, my little Lukey has turned into a MONSTER!! It’s like he turned into this little terror as Grandma watched him for a week. She noticed it too and was afraid we’d blame her for his behavior. We do. Heehee. Don’t get me wrong, he has always gotten into everything as you can tell by my previous posts, but it just seems like he’s turned it up a notch or two.  My first shower I was really wondering how I was going to manage. I had the baby in his crib and Luke in the bathroom with me. Problem was, I forgot to look the bathroom over to make sure there was nothing Luke could get into before I hopped in the shower. For the most part it was all good. Then at the end of my shower Luke got really quiet. This is not a good sign. “Luke” and “quiet” are not two words that go together. If he’s quiet then he’s into something. So I quickly finished up and opened the shower curtain to see this:

He had gotten my face lotion and was putting it all over his hair. When he saw me open the curtain he says, “Hair…hair.” I guess he sees me put product in my hair and anything that comes out of a bottle must go in the hair. Ahhh yes, the adventure begins.

So all in all things are going well. I feel so incredibly blessed to have four beautiful children! God has been so good to me! Thank you all again for all your prayers. It means so much to us! I'm sure tomorrow I'll have another funny, wild, or crazy thing to tell you all. Until then...be blessed! :-)

Jonathan's 6th day- TESTIFY

So today was quite an interesting day. I got to chat with my doctor for awhile and found out he had an arranged marriage! This intrigued me so much I just drilled him with questions because I’ve never met anyone before whose marriage was arranged. It was very interesting to say the least.

Also, today I think my skin has finally had enough of this hand washing stuff. They have a timer that is set for two minutes for you to wash your hands up to your elbows every time you need to come into the NICU wing. My arms are literally burning right now from so much scrubbing this past week.

Isaac, Grace, and Grandma LOVED baby Jonathan. Isaac and Grace had so many questions. Isaac kept asking if he was doing good. He was real concerned about Jonathan. I think they would have rubbed his hair off if we would have let them.

Grandma got to feed him a bottle and spend some time with him while we all went to eat supper together. She said she had a good talk with Jonathan. It was really sweet. 

 Jonathan is now dressed and in a crib. The only wires on him are the ones to monitor his heart rate and breathing. The only thing we are still struggling right now with is his breathing. He seems to be breathing really fast at times. Until this is normal they won’t discharge him. Right now we are pushing to discharge on Sunday. Please continue to pray with us concerning a Sunday discharge. That his breathing would be normal quickly!! Also he’s a little bit jaundice. Nothing to be concerned about but would like prayer for that to go too.

The nurses are having a shift change right now and I’m listening to one fill the other in on Jonathan. As the nurse on duty was telling the new nurse all the progress Jonathan made today she was just in awe over how much progress he made in just one day. She said, “Wow! When he gets better he gets better!” Now, that’s the testimony I was looking for baby!!!! Oh and the lactation consultant went on and on that she was so shocked that he was going to be going home on Sunday. I was almost starting to feel guilty that he was going to come home so soon from the way she was communicating. She just kept saying, “Wow!” She said usually it takes a lot longer and is a slower process. I was so encouraged.The other thing that was funny that the nurse just said as she told the other nurse was, “When this kids happy, he’s happy. When he’s mad, he’s mad. He’s either one or the other.” I thought, “Oh great…another drama king!”

Lastly, as I mentioned earlier Chris left today with the kids back to Fergus. He’s back there now until me and Jonathan can come home. I struggled today with anxiety more so than I have any other day being here. It’s so funny because even when all this was happening and Jonathan was doing much worse I had peace knowing he was going to be ok. I really wasn’t “worried” about him. I knew the Lord was going to take good care of him and he was going to get better. But today, knowing our discharge date could change just freaks me out.  I don’t know why I’m struggling to trust the Lord in this area. Also, the fact that Chris was leaving was really hard for me too. I was trying not to be anxious about it all day long knowing it was approaching, but I really struggled. I fought back the tears as much as I could after they left but didn’t do so good. I’ll be just fine but it was hard seeing them go knowing I’m here solo from here on out. I know some mom’s/wives would love to be solo this long. I’m not really one of them.  I’ve been trying to take my thoughts captive as the battle goes on. It’s been such a blessing that Chris and I could be together this whole time whenever we’d make trips here. God is so good! I’m so thankful for my Mom who has done most of the grunt work here with my other kids. I'd say she’s pretty amazing considering the only real trauma we had was she bleached Luke's blanket and dressed them in the same exact clothes two days in a row! LOL!

OHH!!! And Jonathan is getting better at nursing! He’s starting to get it. We are still finishing him off with a bottle because he’s just so so tired, and nursing is so much work for him.  Oh and another awesome thing is we are able to get him circumcised here which is going to save us a ton of money! I can’t believe how much cheaper it is here than in Fergus. Tomorrow morning is his big day. If there are any guys reading this I’m sure you’re cringing. My husband is glad he won’t be here to say the least.

Well, that’s about all I can think of for now. I must say the highlight of my day was getting to snuggle with Jonathan today after everyone went home. It just doesn't get any better than that.  One other thing... tonight after Chris left I was thinking about that scripture in James where it says we are to rejoice at the testing of our faith because of what it develops in you. Wow! What a scripture. (I was going to type it in here but I'm being too lazy now) It’s one thing to read it and say, “Ok yeah…that’s good….sure rejoice when things like this happen.” But, it’s another to actually do it in the midst of it. So, tonight that’s what I’ll be doing- practicing rejoicing with my Father. Hopefully I’ll succeed. But if I don’t, there’s always tomorrow. :-)