Thankful Thirteen

I posted yesterday about how we are in a tough season, but I wanted to share some things that we are SO thankful for in the midst of the hard times. I don't want anyone to misunderstand the fact that we KNOW we are in a tough time, but it'll get better. We have also seen the Lord provide for us time and time again both emotionally and physically. I'd have to be a robot to have six kids nine and under and not be in a tough time. It's HARD, ya'll! We know that the Lord is preparing us for big things. I'm always telling the kids God must have GREAT things in store for our family because we get tested a LOT. SO, here are my thankful thirteen. I could have more, but THankful and THirteen sound catchy...

1. I only have one more child to potty train. The thought of never buying diapers again by this time next year about makes me break into sobs. Happy sobs. Dude, I even threw all the bottles away last week! That also means no more formula. I'll see you at the salon for my weekly mani/pedi. Well with all the money I'm saving!!
2. I don't have baby fever! This is the FIRST time I haven't had baby fever. I'm so thankful that the Lord has turned my heart towards the path that we are walking down now. It's fun to be in that new stage of raising kids. Not just birthing them.
3. Manly's clinic is doing REALLY well right now. This is a HUGE blessing. He's had faith when mine has faded. I basically begged him to get a different job a few months back, but he was sure that the Lord was calling him to stay put. He was right. I was wrong. We've been blessed beyond belief just in the past few weeks with full schedules and new clients. I'm so proud of Manly and the passion he has for his job and for helping people. God's using him to do GREAT things for the people in our town.
4. My parents are about to begin building their dream home. This makes me so thankful. They've both worked HARD their entire lives, and I'm so happy the Lord is blessing them with their dream home. I can't wait to be part of this fun experience with them.
5. I have new cute accents in my home that put a smile on my face when I see them! I mean teal and burlap chevron. Need I go on?
6. We finally have grass growing in our back yard! This is a really big deal, and hasn't come easily. I'm so thankful at the thought of being able to walk around back there with my shoes off this summer in the squishy grass. Have I mentioned I LOVE being barefoot outside in the summer?
7. We are part of a church where we feel shepherded and loved and appreciated. It's the happiest we've ever been in a church home. It's the closest thing to home we've ever experienced. We are plugged in, learning, sharing, and loving.
8. For the first time EVER Manly and I are both part of the worship team. Anyone who knows me personally knows that singing on the worship team makes my heart happier than just about anything else in the world! Having Manly be part of that has been SO much fun! He's on the other side of my microphone, but I LOVE having him up in the sound booth helping me to sound good. He's learned LOTS in the last few months, and I'm proud of the job that he does, and so thankful that he supports me, and that we get to laugh at our mistakes together.
9. Mia likes to hug. You have NO idea how much I HATE hugging anyone OTHER than my own children. I just don't like to hug. My Mia is my polar opposite. She wants to hug anyone anywhere. It's like she has a "you need a hug radar." She'll just run up and hug people tight and long. She's teaching me to step outside my boundaries and hug people every now and then. Sometimes you just need a hug! Now, don't you all come find me and hug me the next time you see me! Ha!
10. My sister-in-law Stephanie volunteers to keep my kids. I know that the thought of six kids scares lots of people, but she does it happily. I'm SO thankful that she takes time out of her week every Thursday and comes to play with and invest in my kids. They love her, and I know that she takes the best care of them.
11. We lived on SUCH a tight budget for such a long time that I forgot what take-out was like. In the past few months we've been able to add it back into our budget from time to time and I'm SO thankful for the easy deliciousness of Buffalo Wild Wings naked tenders with parmesan garlic sauce for lunch. It's like sunshine on a cloudy day. I think I'll go order some now...
12. I've always found a connection to Beth Moore. I can sit through her video studies and come away with pages of notes. Last Wednesday I decided to visit our Ladies study, and they were watching a video about secrets. I have no idea what the study is called, but in the time that I was there I learned that Satan lives in the space between the you that you portray publicly and the real you. That's a BIG slice of wisdom right there! I was SO thankful the Lord put that before me last week. I've chewed on it since then. I pride myself on being a very open and honest person, but there is always space. Such a good word from Beth Moore.
13. Manly recently bought a beautiful new(to us) Ford Explorer. I mentioned it yesterday, but you should know that I am SO thankful the Lord has blessed us with TWO cars that our family will fit in, and two vehicles that I can actually drive. The past few months left us with a standard, which I am completely incapable of driving. I'm so thankful that we have two cars we can both drive the kids around in now. Thankful for provision! 

 

 

 

The Little Red Caboose Turns ONE!

Ya'll, it has been too long. I keep logging in to post really great things on my blog then feeling overwhelmed by all that I've not posted yet to get anything done. BUT, this is news too important not to share! This past Saturday our sweet Eli turned ONE! I just can't believe that it's already been a year since he joined and completed our family! I have worked hard to cherish each and every moment of his sweet life, because I know that this is our last time to have a little one in our house(YES, a miracle could happen, but I have no plans of being the next mother of a miraculously birthed baby!).
Those of you who read my blog know that I love to throw big birthday parties, but since we've had Eli that's been one of the things that I've tried to scale down drastically. We've done things like special outings and sleepovers instead, so we're still celebrating, just not on such a grand scale. It's been nice to not stress, but honestly I've been missing being able to create parties! When it started getting close to Eli's birthday I told Manly I wanted him to have at least ONE big party, SO I started planning! I knew at once that I wanted it to be a train party. That's one we've never done before, and because Eli is our last(and has red hair) we've called him our little red caboose since he was born. I quickly settled in on a vintage feel, and went from there.

I had Manly make me these rail road crossing signs to go on both sides of our mailbox. He used poster board and black cardstock and just freehanded the design.

Using black duct tape we made a train track up our sidewalk. So cute!

 

These rail road crossing signs were also made by Manly. I simply added red balloons for the lights. SO cute! (HEY! There is a pic of my red rocking chair too!)

 

 

To help with my theme I purchased two copies of the Little Golden Book called The Little Red Caboose. I took the books apart and used the pages for décor. I LOVED the way this door hanging turned out.

 

Right inside the door I had this little bulletin board I borrowed from a friend. We also put out a little red lantern and peppermints for guests. 

 

For the party favor area I decided to go with calling them souvenirs as if they were items found at a train station. I used a friend's small vintage suitcase to hold the candy and cookies. I used mod podge to make the letters of his name, then took him to our local caboose park to take pictures of him in his little overalls. We gave out pictures to guests as a "souvenir" along with train suckers for the little conductors and packs of iced sugar cookies for all the guests. I simply used the brown cardstock I'd used for the invites to create signs for particular areas of the party.

I'll post all of these pics tomorrow when I give Eli a proper First Birthday post!

My first attempt at icing cookies went pretty well! 50 cookies! YOWZAH! I just used goodie bags from Hobby Lobby, then folded over the top and stapled craft paper to the top. I added a label that read: Smittle Family Railroad The Little Red Caboose A snack for the track. =)

Many thanks to some of my good friends who let me borrow all of their vintage suitcases. This area looked SO cute(even better than in pictures) and this was where people put their gifts. I wished afterwards I could keep the cases forever!

This is the area where all the kids usually eat, so we just set up a train for them to play with. I used brown packing paper for the center, and a cheap table cloth for underneath.

 

I used an old globe from my school room for décor. HEY! A pic of my "new" lamp too! Ha!

On the way into the kitchen.

The food table. I bought the baskets at the dollar store, attached them with some of Olivia's black. bracelet cord, then made a track on the table with black duct tape. Made the labels with the same paper as the invites.

 

Pretzel sticks

 

Oreos and thin mints.

 

Bananas.

 

Animal Crackers.

 

I made his smash cake from three mini loaf sized cakes and covered it with red fondant. Manly iced it with black and white butter cream icing. He forgot a place for the wheels, so we had to raise it with big oreos and add in little oreos for the wheels. Ha! It turned out fine. Not exactly what I had planned, but Eli sure liked it!

 

It's a caboose, if you're wondering! Hahaha!

This is the big cake we made for the rest of the guests. It was DELISH! I used a butter cake recipe, then iced it with red, white, and blue homemade buttercream icing. It had such a yummy flavor. Manly did most of the icing on this cake. I just helped smooth things over. It turned out really cute!

 

Used mason jars with brown shred in the bottoms for the utensils, and baskets for the plates and napkins.

 

Another cute added touch was this banner! Isn't is ADORABLE! I used the pages from the book for it. I just hot glued the rickrack to the top to hold it all together.

 

The hydration station was for drinks. I added a label to the cheap cups I bought, and added labels to all the drinks. Got the ice bucket at the dollar store. I wish I had those pretty glass drink containers. Maybe some day, but for now this did just fine.

Eli's cute bib made by a friend of mine was the perfect touch for his "smash cake outfit!"

KK got to help with the cake since she's Eli's buddy. She was so excited for him.

He knew just what to do with that cake! Ha!

Mia giving support with a pat on the back.

A little more work on the cake. Nice.

Eli and Manly both looking CUTE.

Momma and Eli.

 

  

Darling little baby boy!

My beautiful beautiful boy! I love that little red caboose of mine so so much!

 

The Truth Is...

I keep getting on my blog to update the world with what's been going on with us, but the truth is every time I do I feel overwhelmed with how far behind I am on here. It's been WAY too long, and I've missed a LOT. Another truth is that I bought a new computer, and while I love a lot of what it does I HATE sorting through photos on it, and it makes trying to post photos on here nearly impossible. I'm thankful for the provision of a computer, but I should really take the time to try and figure this thing out because I'm limited to what I can actually do on the silly thing! Ehh, at least it has a touch screen...
Also, the truth is that we aren't doing so great. While I always try to be real on my blog, there are only so many times that you can write that it's been a tough year. We've had financial struggles due to the yo-yoing of private practice, heartache, loneliness, sadness, sick kids, kids going to public school, kids getting their heart broken, kids with attitude problems, the list goes on and on. I am fully aware that our trials are minuscule in relation to the trials of others, and I am in no way trying to get anyone to feel sorry for me, only stating that it's been tough, and sharing our nutso life with the world isn't really high on my list of things to do. I want to be honest, but honestly, there are some things I really don't want to have lingering over my head on the Internet for the rest of time.  I've struggled with how to say what I'd like to say for a long time. Honestly, there are a lot of things I'd like to share, but proper words just won't come to me, so I take that as the Lord being my filter of sorts. Ha!
I haven't really done a whole lot of blogging since Christmas, so I think I'll just highlight a few things that have happened since then.

• In January we put the three big girls in public school. It hasn't been what I wanted it to be, and honestly, I'm not really all that pleased with how things are going. The girls are all doing fine, and have really liked a lot about school, but I'm still feeling sad about not being their teacher. I miss them terribly, and feel like it's still not quite right. There are a lot of things I do like about it though, and one of those is that they are having a fun time and they are shining their light for all the school to see.
  

Here they are on storybook character day. Addi is Cinderella, KK is Alice, and Olivia is Josefina(the American Girl).

 

KK won the character award in February. Makes a momma proud!

The kids had a superhero night at school. Here they are sporting their looks. Yes, Eli is wearing a shirt although you can't tell! Ha! Check out the creeper behind Livi. Poor Mia was a little shy.

 

Another pic of the kids. Seriously hysterical!

 

My Lulu at her first choir concert. She's the first one on row three on the left.

• Brubbs turned FOUR! I can not believe he's already four! He's such a sweet sensitive little boy. I love his sense of adventure, and love for all things manly. He and his Daddy went to the monster truck jam for his birthday. He got a Red Rider BB gun from his Pop which he loves. All he asked for was cake and his Nana and Pop to eat lunch with us.

Here he is at his restaurant of choice with his monster truck cake.

 

With his pop shooting his gun for the first time! He is SO proud of that gun!

• Manly and I made rain gutter bookshelves. I got the idea to do them a long time ago, but never had the time or effort available to do them. Recently we've been making some simple home improvements, so I added doing this to my list and we knocked it out in an afternoon. They look BEAUTIFUL and the kids love them, and they are quite sturdy if I do say so myself. We used this tutorial, although since ours were almost nine feet long we added several more brackets than they say are required.

I added little baskets for the really heavy massive story books we have. They're just too big for any shelf really.

•  I also decided to have my hand at some of my own DIY projects I've been putting off. I'm really happy with the end results, although I don't have pics of those. Ooops!

I used my leftover lactation tea to dye my curtains. They turned out the right color and everything. Too bad tossing them into the dryer for 10 minutes to dry shrunk them up!

This poor front porch rocking chair was looking quite rough! After a few coats of red spray paint she was looking as good(better) than new! LOVE the new color and it matches my front door.

I also turned several things in my house teal. LOVE the pops of color!

 

•  I helped the girls(with Manly) make some killer Valentine's boxes! Judge if you want, but it was fun and the girls were DELIGHTED! I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Although I did make these reusable, so I stuck them into the attic at first chance so I can use them again next year!! Ha!

Addi wanted a castle, so castle she got! It looked super girly and sparkly.

KK wanted a pirate ship. Her box took us about 20 minutes. REALLY simple and FUN!

Livi did most of the work on her doggie box. It was the cutest thing! I loved her idea of using multi-color brown yarn to give it added dimension. The little pink bows on the ears just really top it off. SO cute!!! Pretty easy too! Just a box with tape and yarn.

•   Isaiah is still receiving vision therapy in Fort Smith, and we are pleased with his progress. I will say we HATE going to Fort Smith every other week. It's a total hassle, but at this point still worth it to me. I wish his Dr. would move to Conway though!!

Isaiah working through his therapy with red/green glasses. He does a lot of work with these so that it will force him to use both eyes at the same time. 

• I got a nose ring for Valentine's Day. Well, I guess it wasn't really FOR Valentine's Day, but I did get it the day after Valentine's Day. So far I like the way it looks, but it does bug me a little. I think it's mostly because I touch my nose too much! Ha! It's funny how the way some people viewed me changed. Ha! Honestly, it's something I've wanted to do for a REALLY long time. I just finally got the guts to do it! There are a lot of things like that on my list of things to do that you might see pop up. Too bad the next thing on my list is fit into a dress that I've always kept. I may NEVER get to anything else on my list. Haha! No, seriously. I like my nose ring and you should too!



• Eli is a MESS. No, like he's really a stinker! He's basically been sick since he started refusing to nurse at 4 months. Yeah, he's basically a poster child for the benefits of nursing. He's currently on a month long dose of antibiotics in hopes of flushing this nastiness out for good, but if this doesn't work, we'll be checking for immunity and allergy issues. To say the least, it's been a long several months of having a sick baby. I know it could be much worse, and I'm very thankful it's not. I am praying for healing and answers though. In the mean time he's just been as sweet as can be! In between making messes that is!

 

After he got his oatmeal bowl and basically got it EVERYWHERE!

• Mia Jane is really coming out of her shell since the girls have been in school. She has had severe shyness, but in the past three months has really bloomed. She's also REALLY smart and able to do things that blow me away. She can add, subtract, knows most of her letters and numbers, and has amazing control over her writing. This girl got her smarts from her daddy. I can't wait to see her continue to blossom this year.

My sweet girl wanted to write her name. She said, "Show me how, momma." So, I did. This is what she did afterward. Love her little Disneylike "I."

 

She reminds me so much of my sweet Livi at this age.



• Manly won the outstanding young alumnus award at our college. I am SO proud of him! He's really done well in the last few months at work. I can't wait to see what lies ahead for him. I know he'll go on to do great things. He's such a hard worker, and really great at everything he puts his hands to.

My man with his award. Looking quite cute, I might add. 

• After YEARS of waiting I finally got my Big Red!! I'm SO SO EXCITED. I jump at any chance to get to use her! She's such a bute, and so good at what she does. I'm so thankful to Manly for getting her for me!

Here she is in action making homemade butter cream icing.

 

• Manly and I will soon get to take a break and visit Dallas sans kids.
• I met a random stranger who knew who I was because she read my blog. Hi!
• Manly got a new truck! Poor guy has been driving tiny cars suitable for much smaller people than himself, so he was delighted to get to buy a big Ford Explorer. Best part is it's completely paid for. Best advice we ever took was to buy cash cars!

OK, so up next, Eli's party! Now I feel like I'm caught up enough that I can share about his party without feeling like I've skipped EVERYTHING else that happened over the last few months! Thanks for being a part of our life and for hanging in there with me while I needed a break!