She's so sick

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She's so beautiful she takes my breath away on a regular basis. She is also so so sick. Flu? Croup? Something else? She has a runny nose and a cough that keeps her up all night long (when she coughs she cries, and oh my it just breaks your heart). She also has a fever so hot that it could roast marshmallows. She is so hot that I make sure to keep up with her ibuprofen doses. Thank god for ibuprofen, and the fact that it cools her right down.

So, just a hiatus, before posting the end of her birthday party photos. After two nights of being up for hours with a sick baby, and having had E out of town, I'm tired...

Valentine's kinda sucks this year

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I was so excited for Valentine's this year. FOURTEEN YEARS with E on the 14th! It am so lucky! Such a long time! So exciting! I had outfits planed for the kiddos and even a little photo shoot in mind.

But alas, life happens.

E has been traveling a lot for work. Weekly trips since the start of 2013.

Also, since the start of 2013 we've had the stomach flu (which I battled alone, due to another work trip) and a long cold depressing month of January.

February looked brighter.

Then, after Juliet's birthday party on Sunday she got sick. Really sick.

I held off taking her to the doc because I kept thinking it would pass. Today I finally took her in and she has RSV. A very scary virus that can land babies in the hospital. Oh yea, and she has an ear infection too.

She's been up hourly at night and up for the day at four a.m. every day this week. And I've done it alone. Just me.

Today, actually was not all bad. E got home after being gone all week. And having an extra set of hands when trying to put two kids to bed, feed two kids dinner, and bathe two kids is so wonderful. Especially when one kid feels like hell.

We are still in the thick of it. Juliet is doing ok, no hospitalization, and sleeping in somewhat long chunks at night.

But I'm really excited for this week to be over and to have my bunny back to her happy easy self.
Hey look, at least she's in pink pjs. She looks pretty miserable here doesn't she. She was. 

Juliet's party pictures!

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Finally, after nearly a week, I have some time to blog. Juliet is feeling better. She'll kick this virus soon enough. 
So, back to party photos that never got posted. My sister arrived early and helped keep the kids happy while E and I finished last minute details. Juliet will one day ADORE Auntie Sissa, right now she looks like she's saying "why is my Mama not holding me?!"

We invited family from both sides and the house was packed.

I've had a few parties where I've asked guests to dress in specific colors. I am always so happy with the results. Such a Valentine's celebration! (I also had a dress code for E's red and blue party and asked people to dress in autumn colors for James's first birthday).
Baby bunny got lots of bunny birthday cards.
I don't think I've mentioned on my blog yet that my sister-in-law is pregnant. Isn't she glowing? She's due at the end of April. We are all so excited, it will be James's and Juliet's first cousin!
Juliet has never taken a bottle in her life but loved the play bottles Damma brought for her baby doll.
E's grandparents were unable to attend, but sent an amazing homemade quilt. Bonnie (E's grandmother) never had a daughter, instead three sons. Fifty years ago she made this quilt for a one-day daughter that never came. It's been in storage all these years until now, when she passed it down to Juliet.
Soon enough presents were opened and the food was devoured. It was time for the pinnacle of all first birthday parties! Birthday cake. I changed Juliet from her adorable snuggle bunny outfit into an old onsie that was headed to the garbage. This photo was taken right after singing and letting James blow out the candle. She looks a little unsure, doesn't she?
"It's ok sweet gurl, it's good!" James shows her.
Still a little unsure.
But not unsure for long.
This was her first real taste of sugar. I think she was in complete awe.

By the time she was done there was nothing left. Just a gooey happy baby.
The end.

Juliet's modeling days

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Juliet's a baby model. That is so weird for me to say.

Awhile ago, when my mom worked at Naartjie (a children's clothing company) she passed some of Juliet's photos onto her boss. Her boss thought she was adorable and wanted her to model for their spring line. 
E and I himed and hawed. We were not sure that we wanted Juliet modeling. But after two months of thinking about it, we finally decided that she could go in for one shoot, and model two outfits. 
So one very snowy morning a month ago I packed up both kids and headed downtown early in the morning. We arrived, changed her into darling spring outfits and then she got to work. ;)
The entire shoot took less than fifteen minutes, and she earned her first $50. 
On Valentine's Day her photos premiered online and in stores throughout the world. 
She was even featured in a little video they put together of the shoot. Juliet is on minute 0:39 and 2:04. 
While we were honored with a call back for the next line, we decided to decline. We agree that Juliet is a beautiful baby, but she's just a baby. Modeling doesn't need to be added to her resume along with "waking up at night, picky eating, and crying if James splashes."

One day though, she'll be able to tell friends that she was a baby model. And hopefully even then, she will still feel beautiful.

We're baaaaack!

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 Thank you so much to the reader who suggested that I create another account for Blogger. It occurred to me tonight to try logging in as Joe instead of me and - poof - I can add pictures again! Yay! So this post is a big giant mash up of everything we've been doing all month. I'm starting with the kids' Christmas pictures, because I adore them. We had them taken at Target - seriously, is there anything that store CAN'T do?! 
So, what's new? Lily is potty trained- woo hoo! She essentially potty trained herself the day before Thanksgiving, pushing me directly into the camp of "don't rush the potty training - they'll do it when they're ready." My friend Colleen always said "If it's hard, they're not ready" and she's absolutely right. So now we have two potty trained children :) Lily is loving dance class right now. She gets so excited on Mondays when she gets to go. Last week was parent observation day so we got to watch her in action. She's not the most coordinated ballerina out there, but she just may be the happiest! She loves anything to do with art - especially drawing. The other day she drew a snowman that actually LOOKED like a snowman, and she can almost write her name all by herself.



 Charlie is still our super sweet boy, but he's definitely been testing his limits with us recently with not listening, throwing temper tantrums, doing things we tell him not too, etc. He's not BAD, but he's definitely no angel right now, and no stranger to time out. I'm hoping it's the age, and we're being very strict with him in hopes of breaking him of the behavior as soon as possible. Otherwise, he's getting smarter by the second - he can identify all his numbers up to 20 now, spell his name, tell you his address, etc. And he's such a charmer! People fall for him wherever we go. The other day I took the kids into the bank with me and Charlie marched right up to one of the women's desks and started chatting away. Next thing I know he's scored TD Bank santa hats, snowman toys, candy canes and bookmarks for himself and Lily. Seriously, where did my babies go?!?! 
This month we've been busy Christmasing it up. Charlie and Lily are SO into the holidays this year, making everything so much fun. Of course, if I have to listen to "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" one more time I may just lose my mind....  (Charlie and Lily love the Grinch, even though ever since I showed them the movie the first thing they say every morning when they wake up is "No one's going to steal my presents, right?")

So, among other festive things, we've worked on our gingerbread house making skills. That is one extra decorated gingerbread house, no?

  
We've seen many a Santa! The first was on the North Pole Express train ride we took at the beginning of the month, and the kids visited the big guy again yesterday at my friend Megan's toy drive.
 
And of course, we've baked cookies! Making cookies with two 3 1/2 year olds takes a LONG time, lol, but it was a lot of fun. Except for Charlie's fear of the hand mixer, of course.

Lily found it fascinating though.
 
We also had a very successful holiday collection through Love, Annaleigh. On Friday we were able to bring up an entire car load of items to the St. Peter's NICU and PICU including toys, holiday receiving blankets, 1st Christmas ornaments, hand-knit hats and gift cards for the families. Thank you to everyone who helped brighten the holidays for these children and parents who are unable to celebrate at home this year.

I feel like I can't end this post without mentioning the tragedy in Newtown, CT. I have to admit that I haven't been following it much - I just can't bring myself to look at the pictures of those beautiful children who were taken far too soon. But our thoughts are with all the families who are suffering and with all the beautiful new angels who left this world on Friday. Whenever something like this happens I feel glad that I live with the mindset of "life is too short." My kids are spoiled, spoiled, spoiled and I don't regret it one bit.

Hate Clutter. Love People.

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You won't believe what I did a couple of days ago. I don't know why my room turns into the central hub where every one dumps their stuff. It drives me nuts. I'm good at keeping up on the rest of my house but my room is always my last priority.  Dead, dead last. I will homeschool, clean, take care of my babies all day and rarely take a step in my room.  Later I'll walk in and be bummed I never got around to it. I even had laundry stacked up that I would keep forgetting to put away. One day I walked in my room and while I'm hopping over something on the floor I told Ivy she needed to clean her room. She says, "Mommy, you need to clean your room too."  Ummmm.... Yeah, that's just sad.

I tend to hold onto things not because I love things but because I'm afraid something will happen and I'll regret I threw that item out.  I'm sick of cleaning so many THINGS but I'd rather be doing more stuff with my kids. It sounds crazy that I say that because I DO spend a lot of time with them. I'm with the kids all day! (Its funny that people think having a large family deprives kids of time with the parent. That totally depends on your priorities).  I don't crave things, I crave relationships. I'm not gonna regret that I didn't have a perfect house, I just don't wanna regret not building up better relationships with my kids, my family, friends, new converts.  I never long for a day off from my kids, I long for days off with them. I have this dream to take my kids a few times a month to a nearby orphanage to volunteer or visit families that might like some help in one way or another.  My kids are learning to be excellent cleaners and bakers.  There are lots of different ways to reach out and encourage people spiritually, by showing acts of love along with Scripture.  I don't know if I'm explaining my heart but I hope you get my meaning. There is JOY in serving. If you are having a hard day, try to do something for someone. Bake some cookies for a neighbor and tell them you just want them to know you are thinking of them and you care. It'll pull you out of that depression pretty quick! 

Okay, the other night I grabbed some large black bags and THREW everything away in my room. Everything except what was in my closet. Seriously, if it was on top of my dresser it went in the bag too.  If it wasn't a bed, dresser, or crib then it went in the bag. I have no idea what I threw out. I refuse to look but man, it looks good and it solved the problem of me talking myself into keeping STUFF.  Ha.  I love it. Charles told me I'm dramatic and that he married his very own Anne of Green Gables. Anne with an E!  LOL. 

I'd rather be loving people than dusting a bunch of silly old knickknacks!

P.S. one of the pictures is of a cut out my 11 year old son Ryan made for his daddy. Charles really loved it and put it on the mirror so he can see it every morning before work.

Field Trip of Consequences

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We've been so busy around here! Unfortunately we recently got a ticket for bad tags on our van.  We finally got our van fixed after it was sitting for a bit. Well, we got the transmission fixed but got a ticket before we could pass emissions. The cop wasn't very nice and was trying his hardest to find anything else he could charge us with.  After he figured there wasn't anymore he could do he finally let us go.  Oh well, the law is the law. 

Yesterday we reported into court and we took the kids!  We figured it'd be a good lesson for them so they got to see the whole process. We went downtown to the courthouse and first had to go through the screeners and security. The guys loved all the kids and the kids thought it was funny to have to take their belts off and have a "beeper thingy" go over them. We had to take Juliet out of carrier and walk her through. They said that's the biggest group they ever let through and was being so sweet to the kids.

We had to squeeze in a bench in front of the judge and the kids were all super quiet. I told them its a courthouse and we have to be respectful.  I was so proud of them.I whispered to them that we had to pay the consequence for not getting our tags done on time. We were just hoping they'd give us mercy and greatly reduce the penalty. The judge loved the kids, kept smiling at them, and my kids silently waved back.  She reduced our penalty by $500 since we had taken care of our tags. Oh, we were ever so grateful! Phew! After we paid we just were so relieved it was done.  The kids considered it a field trip to see a judge and courthouse and we considered it a good lesson.  :)

Psycho Neighbors & Precious Foster Kids

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I had the CrAziEsT thing happen to me this past week. You are never gonna believe it.  Well, I get this letter from a neighbor directly across the street from me.  She is cussing me out and just ripping me up and down.  My mouth was just hanging open reading it because we had a pretty good relationship. Apparently, a neighbor called CPS (Child Protective Services) on her concerning the foster kids that live there.  She just assumed it's me because of something that was mentioned in the report. I replied with shock that I didn't call on her but she just kept calling me a liar, cussing me out,  and threatening me. 


Okay, I've had her kids over since 2007. I LOVE her kids.  Her daughter can be a little on the bratty side but she's still a little cutie aside from being disrespectful at times.  Her son on the other hand is a total sweetie and VERY respectful.  I especially loved having him over and would pretty much let him come visit whenever he wanted.  He got along fantastic with my boys and would play for hours at my house.  A few months ago my neighbor got several foster kids to live in her house.  Two of them were these little sweet brothers.  I knew their story and knew that they had experience some serious trauma. However, they also were welcome in my home and I loved talking with them.  I could tell they gone through some seriously rough times but they were a joy to have around. 

Often I would hear my neighbor's kids calling the foster kids "retarded" and "stupid."  If they did it at my house I would put a stop to it immediately.  Seriously, these kids have gone through enough and just need a safe haven where they are accepted and cared for just as they are.  They don't need more insult to injury.  I told the kids, "As long as you are in my house you will not call these boys names.  You will treat them respectfully or you can leave."  The girl replied, "Well, they ARE stupid."  I leaned down to the boy, took his hand in mine, and told him he was not stupid and that Jesus loves him very, very much. I said, "He loves you just as you are and you are a gift from him.  Don't EVER let anyone tell you otherwise."  My heart broke for him. I started to pray for these two boys along with my family.  One day one of the boys asked for a slice of pizza I said "Sure!" as he was walking out the door. He was just about to take a bite of the pizza outside when the neighbor girl ripped it from his hands and shouted at him, "You can't have that!!!"  I asked her to give it back to him and by this time we were in ear shot of her mother sitting nearby.  The little girl ran away with the pizza.  She shouted at me that they were muslim and they don't eat pork. I told her that the boy is not muslim so give the pizza back.  Finally, after the girl kept smart mouthing me the mother lazily said, "Give the pizza back."  Good grief. 

Well, recently I was walking down the street to return a dog to a neighbor.  We started talking and she asked me who the kids were that were living there.  I told her they were foster kids.  She obviously didn't like our mutual neighbor and ranted about her for a bit.  She said that she recently saw the little foster boy trying to run away. He was crying and saying he didn't want to live there anymore. The little neighbor was running after him and screaming.  I told the neighbor how I had recently had the kids over for pizza and I had been able to get to know the foster boys a little bit. Well, she told me she was thinking about calling CPS on our neighbor for some various reasons.  I eventually said goodbye and felt yucky about being in the middle of some dispute they have had going.

I guess the neighbor made that call anonymously and BOY did I pay for it!!  She had lied to CPS saying that I had said the kids were starving and so I HAD to feed them pizza.  Such a set up!  Well, my neighbor of the foster kids knows I'm the only one that fed her kids pizza so it was pinned on me.  Since the call was made anonymously I can't have them clear my name to get angry neighbors off my back.

It's been horrible since then. I've tried several times to tell her I have not called CPS. The replies are off the charts mad.  I was told I'll be hunted and I'm gonna regret what I did.  Her kid wrote me a mean message.  A elderly lady (pretty sure it was her mom I had met before) was yelling out racist comments from across the street.  Charles tried to go across and tell her we didn't call CPS on them and make peace with her. She started screaming and freaking out acting like she was gonna get attacked. Then I got another nasty letter warning us to stay off her property. My gosh.  I have psycho neighbors.  With what I've been seeing, the anger issues and threatening, I do hope the boys are taken.  I'm sure they don't need anymore trauma or people with rage issues caring for them.  I cringe thinking if this is what I see in public, what goes on behind closed doors?

I KNOW there are GOOD foster parents out there. It's just like any situation, just because there are mean foster parents doesn't mean EVERYONE is a mean foster parent.  It's just situations like this that give it a bad name. CPS won't clear my name since that neighbor lady reported anonymously. I think the lady will just believe what she wants to believe and no one will change her mind.  I'm just the "white lady" (her words) living across from her who has too much time on her hands.  Sunday afternoon after getting her last bit of hate mail I just cried.  I told God my heart was hurting so, so bad.  I prayed that God would help me forgive her. I prayed for those two boys and I especially prayed that God would work in her son's heart that had recently come to church with us.  He has such a soft heart for God. It's scary opening your heart up to people sometimes. I'm not gonna close up my heart to people just because I have a psycho neighbor across from me. I'm not gonna close my heart up to family just because of  a few hateful ones that hate large families. I even have some reading my blog right now that will never call to say hi and only report and complain to other family members. No matter, I don't write for them.  I write for me. I write because I like to document changes, share pictures, share with some really GREAT blogging friends, and because I hope that sometimes what I write can be encouraging to others.  I'm pretty sure writing about my psycho neighbor won't encourage anyone but it just helps me to get it off my chest. Thank you.  :) I'm getting an order of protection this week. :D Yay for me.  I feel even better. 

Fighting Fair and Vehicular Enlargement

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I know, such a nerdy title to todays blog.

Ooohhhh, my kids have been challenging me.  I can't forget that the spanking spoons have been hidden too.  I haven't found them in a couple weeks, those little boogers.  Not a problem.  I'll just head to the store and pick more.  One for the van, my purse, the kitchen, and the hallway for easy access.  I've had a lot of sibling bickering going on around here.  Yeah, yeah... some say it's a sibling thing.  HOWEVER, I want to teach them how to disagree where you come to a fair conclusion.  That's the real challenge.  That's why I'm not okay with the name calling or use of a fist.

Okay, so now that I have a bigger van for my always enlarging family.... oh wait...I didn't tell you!  We got a 12 passenger van!  Yeah!  Soooo, even if Charles is working late the kids and I can still go to church or wherever else.  Kids aren't squished like sardines and in fact, we have room for friends!  We always take kids home from church so we really needed the extra space. 

Oh, so I was happy to head to church with the kids tonight.  Funny enough, as I was loading back up to leave I saw an extra kid, one that's not mine sitting in the back bench.  LOL.  ♡ Its okay, I love that kid but it is a school night and so no extras were coming.  Soon I'll be getting a zoo membership so we're gonna get enough to take extra kids with us.  That's why we needed the 12 passenger van, weekdays we are a family of nine.  Weekends we're a family of 12.  :-D