Cobble Flats

Okay this day was such a crazy one for me.

I didn't have a good homeschool

day right before this.

So It was like therapy today.

For some reason Mr. T decided he needed 

to stick right close to me.

When I desperately needed space.

At least this girl was in a good mood.

And this girl made a huge ice ball in the snow!

Seriously bigger than her.

Aaand you can see how windy it was.

The kids had a grand time.

Truthfully I stayed in my funk 

even though eventually I got 

the space I needed!

Later we spent some time on the ice before finally leaving.

 It was a good outing and driving home, 
I finally found the peace I needed to face 

another day of home school.

Snow Cave

Our front yard has a lot of buildup snow from shoveling.

And this girl LOVES to dig in it!

Ms. C loves being outside with her sister . . .

 

And slide through her snow cave. . . 

 

May SNOW!

This girl loves the snow and everything that 

looks, tastes, and feels like snow.  

She was SUPER excited to enjoy our 

surprise snow storm!

I love her fun imagination.

Even though it's a lot of work to get the baby out there,

I love watching them play together enjoying 

each other.

Thanksgiving

It was a little hard to separate Thanksgiving from Grandpa's funeral. 

But I wanted to do something nice for my mom.

She had been weighed down with a Major Load during 

funeral preparations and was feeling very exhausted and 

undervalued by the time the funeral was finished.  

So I volunteered to cook Thanksgiving Dinner,

At her house all she needed to do was Show up.

(All Auntie Shannon had to do was make pie!)

It was a great time to be with family, even though there 

were a few moments of heads shaking and 

phone calls that could have waited. 

We were glad we had a chance to be together as a family. 

There was a ton of snow and the kids loved to be out in it!

We enjoyed listening to Ms. A being grateful for 

Grandma and Grandpa.

Ms. E being Grateful for snow and hot chocolate, 

and mr. T being Grateful for power rangers.

I was super grateful for Shanes new work and the 

wonderful people who supported us through his 

unemployment all summer.  

and these Lovely mom's our extended family has gained, 

who love all this huge family and are always ready for a 

giggle no matter how long it has been!

 

Shane was glad he could just breathe for a minute 

and let all the stress go. 

We all have so much to be grateful for!

April Does not bring spring but it does bring change!!

WOW it has been a long time since I took the time to post something!!

First I really need to post the fantastic pictures of Ms. A's Snow Fort!!

April brought us a few snow storms instead of spring.  

She had a fantastic time!! 

Sure do love this snowy girl!!

 

Next there has been a ton of change in our family in the last month!! 

I have been reticent to blog about it because I feel so badly 

that I'm not quite accustomed to all the changes yet. 

They all seemed to happen at once.  

This story begins with my AWESOME Sisters weekend attending 

TIME OUT FOR WOMEN.  

This was an amazing and inspiring two day event 

prepared specifically for women!!  

Wanna learn more go here www.tofw.com!!

Here we are happy and eager to be together.  

Shane had the kiddo's Friday and Saturday 

while I got to party with my fantastic Sisters and my Mom!!

When I got home on Saturday afternoon I found out that 

Mr. T (not yet 6 months) had refused to eat most of the day while I was gone 

and was very lethargic and the cold that he had been battling was significantly worse.

He seemed to get better after some mommy snuggles and 

a couple of HUGE FEEDS!!

He was still sleepy on Sunday but much happier and eating better.  

Sunday night he began coughing so hard he began throwing up

 and after two episodes shane took him 

to the emergency room in the early morning.  

By 7 he was admitted to the pediatrics unit and Shane was coming home 

to switch me out so I could feed Mr.T/be with him.  

His oxygen levels were pretty low and after tests we were 

relived he did not have RSV but did have Bronchiolitis. 

(not to be confused with bronchitis)

We spent all day Monday and a half of Tuesday in the pediatrics unit

 me spending the night in the easy chair.  

The unit was quite empty and there were plenty of helpful nurses 

and caregivers.  

  

 

Shane had made arrangements for me to come home for supper

 as a family so that I could visit with the girls for a bit. 

Change #1.  When I got there I found out Shane and Ms. A had begun 

POTTY TRAINING Ms. E. 

 I obviously did not have the brain power

 to figure out why or how, 

My mind was of course somewhere else.

When I came home on Tuesday to shower our fantastic sitter 

had continued with the potty training and Ms. E had 

pretty much got the drift and was finished.  

(or so it seemed)  I counted myself lucky and moved on!! 

(oh to have this happen for all my children)

This Change has a second part - Ms. E does awesome when we are at home 

but in the past few weeks it has become super apparent that she 

would rather play than use the potty.  

I have not become accustom to being the mom with the messy pants toddler

 running around the playground smearing pee down the slide and swings, etc. 

 Shane of course seems completely unfazed!!

Here we are at home later!! 

He was so happy to be home and see his sisters!! 

Change #2.  After the first night home I realized that Mr. T was incredibly huge 

for the bassinet in our bedroom and reconciled myself to the fact 

that he was in fact a baby now and not my little infant.  

So he was introduced to his new room/crib which he really enjoys.

This change I think was harder on me than him.  

Trekking into his room for night feeds and stopping to pee along the way,

makes me feel like a bit of a zombie!!

Change #3.  After life settled down from the hospital I realized

 it was time to get Mr. T on a bottle a bit more during the day.  

He has nursed longer than any of the other kids, and so 

it was time for me to put some distance between us.  

So began the trek into bottle and solid foods.

Change #4.  So Through all of this Shane's Thesis is coming to a close 

and the days of living at the school are piling up.  

(Don't think I'll ever get used to that.) 

 He's turning in this week HOPEFULLY! 

This is good and bad as we are now back in the stage of LIMBO!!  

Time to walk by faith that our Heavenly Father

  has some awesome plans for us.  

Truthfully we are both a bit apprehensive about the future, 

jobs are still scarce and poor Shane has had nothing but no thank you's

 from all previous prospects.  

 

So we are still adjusting to some of these changes and we are trying to 

simply let the lord guide our little family!! 

Next post will be about our exciting summer plans and a new journey I am on!!