Pictures of every day stuff.

For the most part I would rather show pictures of every day life more so than just telling about it. So, here it is.....

This morning I was folding laundry and Madeline came in and was going diamond - triangle, diamond - triangle. She was pointing to the shapes on my drying rack. I love seeing the light bulb going off in her little head. She did that about 2 months ago also. We were eating out and had to go to the potty. The bathroom had tile walls and Madeline was so excited that their were "diamonds" on the walls. I remember her saying, "mom, did you know that if you put two triangles together you get a diamond?" Madeline is really starting to "get" things and I LOVE watching her process it all. It really is a thrill to see her learn.

Asher loves his Cheerios, so does Patriot. Hmm, makes for easy clean up for me!

I would say only about 1/3 rd make it to his belly.

Ahhh, is he not breath taking.......

A little bit ago we had 3 of Jason and Jami's kids over to play. It was a little chilly and wet outside, but the oldest 4 wanted to jump on the trampoline. The next thing I know they have the hose out and are soaked. I think they were all pretty chilled so they came in and all 4 loaded into our shower. They cranked up the warm water and stayed like this for probably 3o minutes or so. I heard them in there, but when I saw what they were doing I had to snap a picture. Crazy kids!

Last Friday we met up with Ryan's side of the family to celebrate Grandpa Coles 81st birthday. Here is the whole crew (great grandkid-wise).

Asher crawling around on the dirty floor.

Ethan and Logan goofing around. This picture makes me smile.

Ok, so Gideon loves his little kids. He tries to be like a little shepherd to the 2-ish year olds in the family. He would seriously rather play with them than the girls most days. Coleson and Gideon chased each other around pretty much half the evening. It was really cute!

Julie

Aww, I love gardening.....

I have decided that having my hands in the dirt is one of the best things ever. I love to plant my garden and watch it grow. This past weekend we transplanted my strawberries into my new raised beds. They look great. I can hardly believe how much they had spread from last year. We have to go out tonight and cover them though because we have a frost/freeze warning tonight. We also planted my raspberries. Yeah! I have been wanting to do them for years but since you don't really get fruit the first year, I have put it off. Yes, I am sort of an immediate gratification type of person. I also just cut my seed potatoes today. They need a couple days to dry out and then we will plant them also. Each year I get more comfortable with our abilities and do a little more.

I don't know why I love to garden so much. I think it is just a newfound goodness. I have pittled with gardens for years but it really just the past few years that I have gotten "serious" about it. It is pretty much only the veggies that I love to plant and grow. It is a very good thing though and I am thankful to God for giving me an outlet that I really enjoy. Seeing a tiny seed grown into something whole and yummy is kind of like a miracle to me. It really is a beautiful thing. It makes me happy.

Julie

Progressional Pictures of Gracie....

Here's Chrissy the night before delivery. I think she looks amazing. Better than I ever did at 9 months. The girl actually lost weight when it was all said and done. Crazy.

Here is Gracie only like an hour or so old! Chrissy wasn't even out of recovery yet. We have strict instructions to look, but not touch until mama got the chance to hole her. It was sweet to see Chrissy's boys drool over her!

This smooshy little picture is so cute!

This picture was taken a little later in the day. She's probably like 8/9 hours old here.

This is day 2. Grandma Dobbins is totally loving on her!

This was day 3 (Wednesday). Logan is holding her and I think she looks so much different!

Ok, enough with the pictures already!

Here is Asher in our newly gated community. We are keeping Patriot in the kitchen area in case of messes so I get to hurdle gates all day. I am certainly burning more calories. I try to remember that when they irritate me. Btw, Asher is crawling all over the place. He has gotten pretty fast and it is adorable to see him want something and then just go and get it!

Here's a newer picture of Patriot. He is doing pretty good. He is a fun puppy and I am very glad we have him. The potty training thing gets frustrating, but I know it just comes with the territory. He ears are finally both sticking up most of the time!

One more thing. Gideon had his follow up appointment with the orthopedic dr. yesterday. The dr. did another xray and clearly saw his break. That was great to hear. Now we know it was simply a broken clavicle. The dr. said he is healing fine although there's a very large knot there.

Julie

A new niece!!!

I am so excited to announce that I have a new little niece!! My sister Chrissy delivered Grace Ann yesterday morning. She is soooooo beautiful and I am extremely taken with her. She was 7 lbs and 8 oz and has red hair. Now Leah has another red headed partner in crime. :) I just got back from spending some time there and man, I just loved getting to hold her and look at her. I am thrilled for Chrissy, Tim, Bryce and Tyler. The delivery went well and Gracie is doing perfectly! Pictures will follow soon!

Also, Asher's surgery has been scheduled for Monday, May 10th. I am sure it will go fine, but I am looking forward to getting it done.

One more thing..... This Thursday we go back to the orthopedic doctor to recheck Gideon's collar bone. He is doing really well with using his arm and you can hardly notice there was a problem. I just hope the new X-ray clearly shows the break and then we can just know that is what the problem was and be done with it.

Julie

Madeline...

Madeline is such an interesting kid. She is very smart and sweet an funny and really you can't help but love the kid. Madeline however, is going through a time right now. Out of all our kids, Madeline is the one that has been the sneakiest and has pushed my buttons the most. At least pushed them the most as a 3/4 year old. Leah was more hot tempered as a preschooler and maybe even more strong willed in some ways, but I don't remember Leah being so sneaky. It is strange because Madeline has a very strong sense of right and wrong like Leah does, but she does naughty things anyways, even when she knows it is wrong.

It has gotten to the point where I just can't trust her for very long. Like yesterday, the 3 middle kids ate their dinner out on their picnic table. I sat them all out and when I went back to check on them Madeline was dumping some of her food into Anna's bowl and telling Anna if she told she'd be in trouble. Madeline has probably been told 20 times that she does not pawn her food off on the other kids. Then she tried manipulate poor Anna (no wonder Anna was going to send her with the "PS" man). I HATE lying and sneaking but I ABHORE manipulation. Plus earlier that day Madeline had dumped two huge scoops of dog food and chicken food all over the garage floor, which she has also already gotten in trouble for. Oh, and then last night she didn't end up going to sleep until 11:00 pm after coming downstairs 4 different times (and getting swiftly punished each time).

This kind of stuff wears me down quickly. When you add that and 5 other kids that need attention, well, you get the idea. We are being consistent with her and trying different methods of punishment, but could you pray for stamina? THanks!

Julie

The "PS" man.

Yesterday we were driving to piano lessons and we passed one of our faithful UPS men. We have two that come to our house and both are really nice guys. Anyways, as we passed him and we waved and I said "there's our nice UPS man" to the kids. Anna very promptly said to me, "can the PS man take Maddie?" Ouch. I didn't think Maddie had been particularly mean to Anna that day, but gesh. I guess Maddie better watch it or Anna plans to ship her off.

Asher's Dr.'s appointment went fine and he put him on Zantac. I am glad to have something that will hopefully help, but I am not convinced. Asher has had a big spit up within 10 minutes every time I have given him the meds. I certainly plan to give it time, but so far I am not impressed.

Julie

Recents Pics

This is Asher's favorite place to crawl over. He is doing so well getting around. He is actually starting to crawl on all fours instead of just doing the military crawl. Do you see the blob of spit up on the carpet in the backdrop? His spitting up is getting way out of hand and we have an appointment with the doctor tomorrow.

This is part of why we were so busy last week. Occasionally we get partition orders to do at home. This week we had like 4 or 5. It was manageable, but crazy. This particular order was easy enough for the 3 little ones to do. Leah and Logan cheesing in the background cracks me up.

We had the chance yesterday to get some fruit that I ordered planted. Yeah! This makes me so happy. It was a gorgeous day and so good to get out. It was hard work though. Here we are flagging out where we want the trees to go.

Logan and our new german shepherd Patriot.

All the kids liked this tractor. Madeline just happened to be on it when I got my camera out.

Asher on all 4's.

He is doing so much better feeding himself also. Now about 1/2 of the food gets in his mouth instead of about an 1/8. He was loving his waffles (cut into itty bitty pieces)

Right after a big bite. Check out his mohawk. All I have to say it "I pitty da fool." (how old does that make me?)

This is from the casting crowns concert a couple weeks ago. Asher was so tired and he fought it the entire night. He is snuggling with daddy here. With each child I have been been struck with how much of an amazing daddy Ryan is. He loves his kids so much. I find great joy in the newness of watching him fall in love with another one of our children.

Go to sleep........

The casting crowns crew!

Just a Quick Note

We have been very busy this week, but something exciting has happened. Asher crawled for the first time on Saturday the 3rd. He was quite determined to get his toy and by golly, he did. It is more of a military crawl at this point, although he does get totally up on his hands and knees some. At some point he will realize that his hands and knees are the most efficient way to get from point "A" to point "B," but until then, well, it is just so cute to watch him.

Another exciting thing that happened was that we got a new puppy last Friday night. He is really very cute and I think he will fit in well. He is a pure bred German Shepherd and we named him "Patriot." Potty training is no fun, but is pretty much confined to the laundry room and the kitchen so if there are any messes, they are easy to clean up. All the kids adore him, but Gee. He tends to be a little more timid at first anyways, but I guess mom and dad Cole's new lab puppy jumped up on him a couple weeks back and so I think that freaked him out enough that our new puppy scares him. You can tell though that he wants to like him and he is slowly getting more comfortable around him. I think Anna has kind of "adopted" him. She takes a lot of time with him and asks if Patriot can play outside with her. It is very sweet.

Easter was very nice. We had gorgeous weather. Probably one of the most beautiful Easter's I can remember. We were able to celebrate with our little family and with our extended families and I always enjoy that. Oh and at church Saturday night we figured out why Madeline did not want to go to her class anymore. She has always gone to class with Anna and Gee and shortly after we got home with Asher she hated her class. So much so that she was that child that screamed and hung on you as you tried to leave. It was very odd. We let her sit with us a couple times and we just thought she was adjusting a little harder to things. A few weeks ago we went to the Sunday morning service instead of the Saturday night and Madeline loved her class but when the next Saturday night service came, she freaked again. So.....I guess she had a teacher in her original class with Anna and Gee scold her because her name tag came off. Apparently she told her to "not let it happen again." To be honest, it surprises me that Madeline took it that hard, but my heart really went out to her once we knew what the problem was. Poor thing. The good thing is now she loves her class and that's what really matters to us.

Another update is we just had our 3 month post placement meeting with the social worker last night. That was pretty relaxing and a no brainer. I think we have to have another one in 3 more months. Can you believe Asher has been home for 2 1/2 months? Crazy. We are really trying to get him a social security number so that we can add him to our taxes. What a pain. It shouldn't be this difficult, but I think our local social security office is a little confused as to what type of documents they need. Actually, very confused.

Well, that's it for now. I will upload pictures with my next post!

Julie

Gideon update and "Happy Easter"

Gideon's Dr.'s appointment went fine. The specialist said he does think Gee has broken the clavicle and we just aren't seeing the break yet (soft tissue something or other). He wants to see him back in 3 weeks because he said the break should be completely obvious by then. If it isn't at that point they will probably want to run some tests. I am optimistic that he will be ok, but that nagging mommy worry certainly is still there.

Gee and I have had a good time together though over the last few days. I always forget how sweet it is to have one on one time with my kids. Gideon is such a cool little kid. He can be really shy around strangers, but once he gets comfortable he can be a real goofball. He has such a tender heart, but he can be hot tempered and VERY stubborn if he wants to be. I just love him so very much and feel so blessed to be his mama.

The casting crowns concert yesterday was soooo great. Asher was a little bit of a stinker, but when you take a 10 month old to a concert, that is what you get. I really, really enjoy casting crowns and I think I could attend tons of their concerts without ever growing tired of them. They opened with the Chapman brothers (i.e. Steven's sons) and then 10th Ave. North (another band I really like). After Casting Crowns was about 1/2 the way through their concert they went to sing "Voice of Truth" and guess who joined them??? Yep, Steven Curtis Chapman himself. What a treat for us. They just sang that one song together, but after the song Mark (CC's lead singer), revealed (I guess this wasn't common knowledge) that he and his wife are leaving soon for China to pick up their baby girl! Yeah!!! Mark said being on tour with Steven like 3 years or so ago inspired them to adopt also. To me, that was the coolest part of the concert. Another baby gets a home!

Well, I hope everyone has an awesome Easter. I am excited to celebrate the resurrection of Christ, really I am. I am excited to go to church Sat. night and be in awe of what Jesus did for us.

Tomorrow Ryan and I are hosting the annual Easter egg hunt on my side. That will be fun. We are going to do a brunch and it still looks like the weather will be nice, so all is good. Today Leah and Logan have a piano lesson and Ryan has to run to town for a bit but the rest of the day will probably be spent getting our outside ready for the egg hunt. Plus I want to color eggs with the kids. Shamefully the littlest ones haven't ever done that. I think later this evening we are going to watch the "Passion" movie. It is such a heavy movie that I have only seen it at the theater. The two oldest have never seen it. I think it will be a very good reminder of what Christ sacrifice for us. I feel that will make our Easter celebration on Sunday even more sweet.

Happy Easter everyone. I really hope your holiday is blessed!

Julie