De-Stress WITH The Kids

Today, while I was trying to make dinner while listening to the big kids playing on the tire swing in the backyard, practicing music for church Sunday,keeping the babies from chewing raw meat, getting myself ready for girls night out, and timing it all in a way that would get us out the door and to Manly's office for the great changing of the guard so that he could bring the kids back home and I could go socialize, I got a little stressed. Stress is actually second nature for me. Usually before I even get out of bed my job begins. Usually around 5-5:30am each morning.
It's important to find ways throughout my day to relieve a little stress while still maintaining my mommy role. SO, today while I was in the moment of stress I jotted down a few things that I thought I might pass along to you. Take 'em or leave 'em, but their my tried and true kid involved stress busters. There are more, but these are my favorites.

• Color. I am not very good at coloring, but I LOVE to color with the kids. They love it too. I always try to keep a couple of really easy coloring books with simple thick lines. There's something about just sitting there and moving the crayon back and forth that really just calms me down. Shop the Dollar Store for the best and biggest coloring books...
• Listen to a lullaby. I had never thought of this until I recently heard an interview with Michelle Duggar where she talked about listening to harp music when her house got chaotic. I have an amazing lullaby station on our Pandora account, so I'll just pop that up on my phone when things start to get nutso and pretty quickly things can turn around. If you aren't sure what to add might I suggest Jewel! You'll thank me later.
• Push cars around. There is something about laying on your tummy and just pushing a matchbox car. Sounds are optional. My best times with Brubbs usually comes from this time spent on the floor.
• Read. Really need the check the noise level? Pick out a great story and read to the kids in your most animated voice. It doesn't even have to be a picture book, just something that they'll enjoy. Be sure to stop before they become uninterested. Leaving them wanting more will allow you to bring it back out again. Maybe while you want them to fold laundry or eat lunch...
• Swing. It's been so beautiful outside these past several weeks. While I'm not an outdoorswoman I still have to go out and play with the kids. I like taking a moment to SLOWLY swing on the swingset. I say slowly because going fast would probably make me barf. Ha! I usually have to move my rump pretty quickly or put a baby on my lap because there aren't a whole lot of extra swings these days, but the kids are good to share at least for a few moments.

Happy de-stressing! Remember, this is your life soak it up.

Little BOY Blue

Brubbs has become enamored with markers.

Today he found Olivia's school box unattended and this was the result.

In the picture below he's saying, "MOMMA!! SEE!? SEE?! MAH-KER! BOO(blue)!!

Boy OH Boy! What am I going to do with him?

A Good FRIEND is Hard to Find

Have you ever had someone in your life that you want to spend more and more time with because they just get you. That's how we feel about our friends Wes and Bailey and their family. Scotty first met Bailey in the 6th grade and they have been friends since then. Wes joined the picture as Bailey's husband shortly after high school and that's when I met them.
They are crazy about each other and love their kids near flawlessly. Bailey is a labor/delivery nurse, but now just works two nights a week so that she can spend most of her time with their five kids 6 and under(just like us!). She's just started the homeschool journey with their oldest who is in Kindergarten this year. Wes builds the most beautiful handmade guitars you've ever seen. He's a great musician and a fantastic father. Their kids are hysterical and sweet  and BEAUTIFUL! Bailey and I keep saying that we're going to arrange marriages between our kids because they have 4 boys and a girl and we have 4 girls and a boy! We'll see how that turns out in a few years...Our kids get along so well with each other that it seems we spend a lot of time together, but really we only get to see them once ever few months. We got to see them this weekend and it was just so fun to get to live life together. Now I'm going to start praying the Lord brings them closer to us, because they are such a blessing to us!
These are a few pictures of our time together. I wish I'd gotten a group photo, but with 14 people, it's tough to get everyone in one spot long enough to snap a picture!

Scotty with their youngest Elijah. He looks like he could belong to us!

Scotty with their Eli and our Isaiah. I'm telling you these two look like brothers! 

Some of our kids eating a picnic lunch. This is everyone except the babies and parents.

More picnic.

Olivia with their oldest, Josiah. These two are so much alike and had such intelligent fun.

Wes with most of the kids. My girls were talking about him this morning and Olivia said, "Sometimes I'm a little scared of Mr. Wes because of his long hair and deep voice." Emma Claire said, "I'm NOT scared! I think he is HAAAANDSOME! He looks like Jack Sparrow." 

The Isaiah's! Our Isaiah is maybe 2 weeks older that theirs. They don't look alike AT ALL, but they are near identical in personality.

Addison with her "BEST BEST BEST friend!" She said this because he shared his oatmeal cream pie. Ha! She said, "I think Noah is NICE!"

Olivia and Josiah looking for "clues."

Our Little Girls and their only girl, Anna Ruth. Isn't she so CUTE! Such a sweet personality and those eyes!

The Isaiah's invade Mia's personal space with kisses and hugs. Their Isaiah started it, but our Isaiah didn't want to be left out. In this picture it looks like their Isaiah is saying, "Awwwww!"

Liv and Josiah. These two had so much fun. So sweet!

Smittles Do the Corn Maze

I mentioned a few posts back that I recently joined our local MOPS group. I already had several friends that went, and I thought it be a good group for support for being a SAHM(stay-at-home-mom). It's hard to take all the kids anywhere by myself. Really, it's hard for Scotty and I to take all of them anywhere together. Five kids 7 and under are hard, period. Anyway, I know it'll be hard to get everyone there in the mornings, but I also know that it'll be a great time for me to have a little time with other moms and for the kids to get to play with other kids their ages.
Today our MOPS group took our crew to the local corn maze. I didn't fully decide to go until about 8AM this morning and needed to leave at 10. This wouldn't have been a problem except all the clothes in the darn house were dirty(Monday is my laundry day), so I had to do a load of jeans for the kids to even have anything to wear. By the time everything was clean and dry and on and six heads of hair were fixed we were a tad late, but ended up getting there almost on time and ahead of the majority of the other moms. I was able to pack a quick picnic lunch for everyone, get everyone to go potty, and grab all the water bottles on our way out, so once we were there I was determined that the kids were going to have a fun time even if I had to MAKE them!
I need not worry about fun. They had a blast in the dusty, hay-filled air. They played in a pit full of corn kernels, on a playground with sand(Sand is not something that I usually allow them to play in because with five kids it multiplies until it seems we have a beach right in the back of the suburban, so this was an extra bonus!), rode a barrel train, went on the corn maze, and took a LOOONG hay ride. The weather was nice, the friends were great, and the conversation with other moms was priceless. Isn't it amazing how God uses other people who are or have been where you are to minister to you. I just loved having the support of other mom's and having them there to help love on my kids is such a blessing. And now, without further ado, the pictures. There aren't many and they aren't good because when I'm on my own I almost always have a handful of babies!

The barrel train pulled by a tractor. Bubby LOVED this little ride! He was just smiling!

Mia with Momma in the Moby. Notice the hat and no make-up? That's what happens when you try to do it all in 2 hours. My getting ready time was eaten away by laundry, lunch making, and feeding the baby. Oh well, the hat shades the dark circles under my eyes, right!?

The Corn Maze. It was supposed to be really easy, but the group of mom's we went with went in circles a few times before we could find the way out! The kids had a good time though. I can't imagine going to a corn maze in the dark! I'd be so so scared! I remember going once in college right before Scotty and I were married and it was really scary, but I don't think I could do it again now in my old age. I'd be worried I wouldn't make it out without peeing on myself! HA!

Getting ready for the LOOONG hay ride. Mia with her teething face cracks me up.

She's such a little doll!

Trying for another group shot. FAIL! Look at Mia EATING Olivia's arm. HA! That big girl puts up with just about anything with a smile. What a sweet big sister.

Once we got home I tried for another group shot since they were all dressed for fall.

This is the best I got.

and finally an almost decent one! 

Happy Fall, Ya'll!

Make-You-Smile-Saturday

This child makes me smile. I hope you'll smile too.=)

On our recent vacation to Disney World we didn't hold back on food like we probably should have. The kids had just about anything they could think of to eat and snack on. Hey, it's the place where dreams come true, right??

With the deluxe dining plan you get SO much food! As part of the plan each person gets two snacks a day. Well, if you've ever been to Disney you know that you CAN NOT leave the resort with out having a Mickey-shaped ice cream bar. Of course Isaiah had to have one. He was COVERED in ice cream afterwards, but he had such fun eating it and I just loved watching him smile and laugh and learn to say ice cream!

You Wanna Whine or Smile

It's all about perspective. I could look in to my life right now and either whine or smile.
You see, raising 5 tiny kids is a VERY overwhelming job. At any given moment in my day to day I can have myself a little fit and feel sorry for myself. Because I'm so overwhelmed at times it's easy for the tiny things to put me over the edge.
No one EVER told me how LOUD 5 kids would be. No one EVER told me that the next time I'd have a moment to think would be once they were old and I was grey. It's TOUGH! Some days I feel like whining and crying and not getting out of bed! BUT, I can sit here whining about how hard it is, or I can stop and be OK with things being the way they are.
I can except that I'll never have a "clean" house and that my life right now is going to be LOUD. Then, I can enjoy that God gave me this life. I can thank Him for choosing me to get to love my kids. I can thank God for the quirks that make my day fun and exciting. I can pray that Addison would stop YELLING WHEN SHE TALKS! When I take a step back and look at the life God has given me to live ALL I can do is SMILE.

 THIS is smile worthy!

Fast Paced is the Life for Me

I do everything quickly. I always have. In highschool I got pulled over no less than 100 times for speeding. I was always able to QUICKLY talk my way out of a ticket. I can't tell you how many times I said, "I'm so sorry, sir! I'm late for Sunday school!" =) So bad, I know.
Now that I'm married with kids the fast paced(ness) works as a great tool for getting things done around here. I always speed clean the house by doing things in the same motion(I always start in the same room and work my way around the house in the same motion) each time and running to do things like dusting and vacuuming. I talk fast. I think fast. I walk fast. I just really like the feeling of quickly getting as much done as possible.

Well, today I found my HELL. ON. EARTH. Today was Lulu's birthday, and Scotty and I wanted to do something fun with her instead of buying her something since they get SO much stuff for their birthday's. She decided that she'd really like to take a trip to the Ozark Folk Center.  She's such an old soul. She is fascinated with "old-timey things" and wishes she lived in the days of log cabins in the woods and rag dolls and home churned butter. She'd seen the ad for the folk center in one of my local magazine's and had been waiting for a time to go. Scotty had to lead a workshop this morning about an hour away from there, so we thought we'd just ride up with him and then head on over around noon.

For those of you who aren't aware of what exactly "ozark" means I'll tell you. S-L-O-W!=) I know I'm being really mean, but it's true! When we got there and went in to the park cafeteria our waitress was in no hurry to take our order, get our food, or refill our drinks, which was fine, because it's kind of a big deal when we go out, so it usually takes us a while to get settled at the table and get everyone's order ready. I should have known it wasn't that she was lazy, only part of the beauty of the place. At this point in the day I am still nothing but excited for Liv.

After lunch we walked SLOWLY out of the cafeteria and into the "crafting center" or something like that. It was soon brought to my attention by my well-meaning husband that I was "rushing" everyone and that he and Olivia were going to take a minute to look at the map and figure out what they wanted to see first. In my head I'm thinking, "Just find the point closest to the entrance, and go in clockwise order. Skip any store with out a wheelchair ramp. Look for things that might be free. Focus on Livi having fun!" After oh, say 8.356 minutes that's the same conclusion they came up with give or take a few things. At this point, I'm still mostly nothing but excited for Liv, but also thinking that at this rate WE'RE going to be old-timey by the time we get finished here...=)

The first store we go in takes no less than 30 minutes. There are 24 small stores. Each store has a demonstration. Each person demonstrating their trade is VERY nice and wants so know EVERYTHING about EACH child. I'm telling you they were so so nice and gave us several blessings on our "sweet beautiful family." No one is in a hurry to do anything. No one has anywhere else they'd rather be. Each store has something EVERY child wants. Each store has something every child wants to touch. There are goats to touch and feed. I'm sorry. That has nothing to do with the pace, just that goats are, in my personal opinion NASTY. We spent almost 40 minutes just looking at a guy spinning tops. I thought I was going to fall on my face.  At this point I'm really excited for Olivia because she's having the time of her life, but I'm trying to see if I've gained any wrinkles or grey hair in the 50 years since we've been here.

Please don't see this as me complaining. I feel so blessed to have been able to take our family on an outing and celebrate Olivia. I'm only mostly poking fun at myself for being so nutso about not "wasting time" which in this case couldn't have been further from the truth. The kids had a BLAST. Scotty liked getting to see EVERYTHING(and I mean EVERYTHING). I found a CUTE bonnet for Mia. Olivia felt celebrated. I loved getting to see the kids try new things and see new things. AND, I GUESS I really could use a lesson in slowing down and smelling the roses, or in this case, homemade lye soap...

Then I Had Kids

Today I went to a women's group where they were talking through a book that I'm pretty sure was titled "And Then I Had Kids" or something along those lines. The group was good and the discussion this week was on finding good role models for our kids, which is something that was of great interest to me. I should now mention that I haven't read said book, so I know nothing about what it's really about, but this evening in the calm and quiet of my home I've been thinking over that phrase-"and then I had kids..."
I remember a day, not THAT long ago when I was pencil thin and wore only nice clothes. I ate out most every day and went shopping for fun instead of for necessity. I bought things I liked, ate things I liked, wore things I liked, said things I liked, watched things I liked...you get the point. All of that to say I lived a pretty darn good life. I had a handsome guy on my side. We were singing and acting in churches and schools around the country. Life was gooooood. And thheeeeen, I had KIDS.
Being a mom to five kids is a lot of work. There are some days when before I even get out of bed I'm exhausted. Sometimes they suck all the life right out of me and I don't think I can do it even one more second. I am not super mom and my kids aren't perfect. One thing is certain though. I would NEVER want to go back to my life before my kids.
So many times the things that are special about being a stay-at-home-mom-of-five become the things that drive me crazy and make me want to run out and get a J-O-B. For instance, I can't count the number of diapers I've changed in the last seven years, the amount of times I've been spit up/pooped/peed on, or the times I've been up 24-48 hours at a time with a screaming baby(or two), but I'd never want someone else to be doing those things for me. I'd be broken hearted if someone else caught my kids first word, watched their first steps, or pulled their first tooth. I LOVE my times with my kids. There are so many times each day that I think what a blessing it is that I'm able to be the one to stay home and love on all these babies.
God has blessed me so much with this crazy life of mine. I know that he put me on this earth to be a baby-momma. I LOVE having babies. I love being a mom. I LOVE having all these babies in our home. I just LOVE it! I'm telling you, I was made for this! Now, that doesn't make life any easier, but He always gives me the grace to make it through the tough days.
Today was one of those tough days, then THIS happened.

My cup runneth over.

I'm BAAAAAAA-ahck!

So, as I promised to several of you, I'm back in the blogging world. We've had such a crazy crazy few months, but blogging and keeping a record of our life is very important to me and I love it that some of my ideas are helpful to some of you too!We have such a busy life right now. We are still homeschooling, so with Olivia in 2nd grade and the two little girls in pre-k along with two other babies under 2, I'm lucky to still be standing by the time Scotty comes home!=)
I've been trying to find a place for myself in the sea of littles around me. I know in this season of life I'm supposed to be the CEO of my home and family, but I am a social being and love having a support team to help me make it.=)It is important for each of us to have something that helps fill our cups. This week I'm planning to start attending a local ministry called mom2mom, and next week I'll start MOPS for the first time. I'm not sure why I've never been a part of MOPS before, but I'm REALLY looking forward to my time in both ministries.
We just returned from a 10 day vacation to Walt Disney World! We decided when Olivia was tiny that we'd go each time one of our kids turned 5. It was, as you can imagine, CRAZY, but fun. I was not prepared for the noise level! I mean, 5 kids in one car for 14 hours can make some serious NOISE!! It was a fun trip though and we made it through. I'll be posting some Disney tips later in the week, but for now a few sweet pictures.

Mia(our 4 month old) was wonderful. She hung out in the front pack on Scotty most of the time. She's just go to sleep when she was sleepy, then wake up and watch everything. She slept well in the pack-n-play and kept her nursing schedule while we were there. I was so glad she did OK while we were there.

Isaiah LOVED the characters SO SO much! It would totally crack us up because he'd just run up to them and kiss and hug them over and over again. He didn't like being in the stroller. He'd rather be running around, but because of all the people we had to keep him strapped in! He got LOTS of kisses from the female characters.=)

Addison was a little toot. I think she's having her terrible twos a year late. She's always been a diva, but she's really started getting disciplined a lot on her bad attitude, whining, and yucky mouth. I think she's going to be our child that likes to press the limits and see what she can and can't get away with. She LOVED anything princess and stood in line in the pouring rain for over an hour to meet her favorite, Rapunzel. She loved being in Disney. She loved getting to be a "big girl" sometimes and going to stuff with Liv and EmC.

Poor Emma Claire spent the first half of the trip pretty miserable. We found out pretty quickly that she didn't like the hustle and bustle of Disney. She'd much rather be playing in the hotel room with her new toys she bought with her spending money. She did, however, find her Disney sweet spot on day 5 when we made it to adventure land and she met Cptn. Jack Sparrow. Wow. She was so happy she was speechless. We were SO so happy she found her happy since it was her special trip to celebrate her 5th birthday. She got to ride her first real roller coaster. She LOVED it!

Olivia, as always, was our easy going peacemaker. She loves Disney and on several occasions asked if we could move to Florida so we could go more often. She'd go nuts at parades because I'd told her if she did the characters were likely to come shake her hand(and they did.).=) She loved the pools at the hotel. She figured out that some of the Disney magic is actually pretend, which was both hard to watch and fun to include her in "adult" conversation. Love that sweet girl.

I look forward to sneaking back into the blog world. Later.

Happy 101 to Leslie's Little Smittles!!

Whoa! I missed saying anything about my last post being my 100th. I should celebrate with cake, I think. That's probably just my pregnant brain telling me to make any excuse to eat something.=)

We've been passing around yucky coughs and snots lately. I finally got Isaiah on an antibiotic since it'd been three months and his nose still hadn't cleared up and he'd been coughing. My kids are rarely sick, and usually don't require a Rx, but this time I decided that he needed some help to kick this cold or sinus infection or whatever it is.

So, being in the heart of the south we don't get much winter weather. I mean, it's cold to us when it's 30 degrees, but as far as serious cold or winter precipitation we just don't ever deal with that. Until this winter. It's been really cold and snowing a lot. I love the winter weather for several reasons, but mostly because it means that manly is home with us! I also like the fresh look of everything covered in WHITE! So pretty and soft and quiet. The kids like the winter weather because of momma's homemade hot cocoa. That stuff is GOOD! I use this recipe to make chocolate syrup, warm the milk in the microwave for 2 minutes, add three mini marshmallows, and serve. SO yummy! You can also use it for Chocolate milk and as an added boost to your coffee. I mean, I usually just drink it straight out of the bottle...Kidding...welll....It's the pregnant brain that made me do it that ONE time...=) The thing I love about this recipe is that it's stuff we usually already have at home.

I also made a DELICIOUS banana bread recipe with the kids the other day. Olivia had been reading from one of her books and brought it to me to ask if we could make it. Since I've been in the mood to increase my baking skills lately(I can cook with the best of them, but baking is NOT my thing) I decided that we would indeed tackle the bread. It's a very easy recipe:

Big Bird's Banana Bread

3 peeled ripe bananas

3/4 cup honey

1/4 cup melted butter

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Oil bread pan(we used our pampered chef heart-shaped spring form since it was a treat for daddy and close to Valentine's day)
• Mash bananas in large bowl.
• Melt butter and add to bananas.
• Add in other ingredients.
• Stir until mixed together.
• Pour into pan.
• Bake for one hour.

We added chopped nuts to the top of half of ours.

I love this recipe for me and the kids because it has no added sugar, but it doesn't lack good taste. It's really good, really moist, and actually pretty healthy. Enjoy!

It's Monday. That means laundry day and school. I just heard my dryer finish and Olivia is working through a tough math lesson. Time for me to get going.

Have a great day! Soak it up! This is your life!

OH, and Happy 101 to Leslie's Little Smittles!=)

Got Threads?

I've recently been following Money Saving Mom. I love that her site doesn't just have coupons. She's got lots of freebies and other good deals and information. I'd recommend that you add her feed to your subs.
Yesterday she posted a link to ThredUp.

I'm wondering if any of you have ever used or heard of anyone using it for kids stuff. You all probably know that I am the queen of consignment. Our kids wear mostly used name-brand clothing. It looks like you go online, pick out a box of clothes, pay a really low price, then when you are ready, you post your own box. Looks like a really great deal.
Anyway, I wanted to be sure and pass this idea along. Let me know if you decide to use it and how it goes!

We're Gonna PARRRRR-TEEEEE!

We had Isaiah's birthday party on Saturday. It really turned out cute! We were on a small budget, so I handmade most of the decorations and ended up having a lot of fun getting it all together. Here are a few pictures.

The invitation. Just in case you didn't see it yet.

This is the little emblem that I designed to go on everything.

I printed these out and pasted them on the backs of 4X6 pictures of Isaiah to give as party favors since it was a family party and I knew there weren't going to be many kids for "real" party favors.

And now for the party pictures.=)

Sweet Brub right before the party. He wasn't feeling well and looked all puffy, but he's still smiling!

I made the banner from two types of scrap booking paper which was on sale at hobby lobby and white card stock that we already had. It made me want a cricut as I hand cut each letter out, but it ended up looking SO cute!

Sweet brother. His shirt was an iron on also on sale at Hobby Lobby for less than $2.50.

I got the plain white shirt there for like $3.99. He also had on birthday boy shoes that I got at Babies R Us back when he was a newborn for $1!

The office set up to seat our guests while they eat.

The party table!! Snacks included: Animal crackers, pop corn, roasted peanuts, white chocolate dipped oreos, rock candy, dipped pretzel rods, jelly beans, grapes and blue berries, punch, cake, and ice cream.

The cake we made! I thought it turned out pretty cute and it matched really well.

Another picture of the party table.

Punch made from green Hawaiian punch and ice cream.

Green and blue jelly beans. The dang candy was the most expensive thing in the whole party!

Blueberries and Grapes

Rock candy.

White chocolate dipped oreos. WHAT A MESS, BUT GOOOOOD!

Isaiah's smash cake. It matched the little emblem I designed perfectly thanks to my cake decorating husband!

The party favor bucket. These pictures had the thank you notes on the backs. You can also see the dipped pretzels in this picture.

Momma, Daddy, and the party animal after he'd been changed from eating cake.

More pictures to come of the actual party tomorrow. For now I have minds to mold and children to train...