For this boy I prayed....

Happy Birthday Miss E and Mr. K!  She's 16, he's 5.  Oh, how blessed we are to have them in our family.  They truly are gifts from God.  Every child is, but I love the special bond between these two.  He is a living, breathing, sweet (but sometimes annoying) reminder of God's faithfulness to Miss E, and the rest of our family.

"For this boy I prayed, and the LORD has given me my petition which I asked of Him" 

1 Samuel 1:27 NAS

At 10 years old Miss E began praying for Mr. K by name....before I was even pregnant with him.  When she found out the due date she prayed faithfully that he would be born on her birthday.  As the date grew close she made her birthday plans around being at the hospital for the delivery.  She had been praying for this and she was absolutely certain that God would give her the birthday gift she had asked for...Mr. K ON her birthday.  I just love how Mr. K's face lights up when we talk about this.  He KNOWS he is wanted, loved, asked for, and was an answer to prayers.

Our bottomless pit

Mr. M is currently functioning as a bottomless pit into which we throw food.

"Food!  Pass it!"

Thankfully he's got some sisters that love to cook.

Happy Birthday Mr M!

Mr. M turned 13 this year, giving us 3 teens in the house!  Along with the other two he brings so much joy and fun into our lives.  We're enjoying these years of getting to know him and share more with him.  Mr. M's birthday was a relaxing day around the house.  He got to pull out the riding lawn mower, hike out to a geocash in the area and eat his favorite foods.

He's a pretty awesome big brother too.  He sure can get our little ones laughing!

Happy Birthday Mr S!

Ah, the end of April.  We had our last (hopefully) blizzard before spring came to stay.  When Mr. S was born on a sunny day in Florida I never imagined we'd ever be celebrating his birthday in a blizzard.  We had known the forecast and the plan had been to get out and go shopping for his birthday food on Saturday once the snow stopped.  We got out in the van ok, but (thanks to the wind) we got stuck in a drift coming home.  Fun!

These two had so much fun together while we were shopping.  They're not always like this, but more often than not they really are like best buddies.

We opened gifts.  Mr S was super excited to get gift cards to many of his favorite places.

Since it hadn't been too hard to get the van unstuck and the truck can generally get in and out ok we decided to take him on his birthday date.  We had a great time taking him out for Chinese food.  After eating we took him shopping for some treats to share with his brothers and sisters at home.  When we got home the truck got stuck in the drifts.  The wind was causing more trouble than the initial storm did.  Yikes!  We decided it would be best to stay in for the next day or two while the snow melted. :) 

Mr S has such an energetic and outgoing personality.  He makes friends easily and usually has a smile on his face. He's a creative guy.  Life is always an adventure with this guy and we look forward to seeing what adventures God has in store for him as he continues to grow and learn.

a-a-and....they're off!

His braces came off las week!  Months early too!

A couple of months ago Mr. R started asking me when I thought they'd come off.  Thinking that it would be GREAT if we could reduce the amount of regular appointments we have before baby comes, I asked.

Our wonderful orthodontist was very understanding of our reasons to want them to come off sooner than later and took a close look.  He projected they'd be off before Christmas.  Then set a date for late in November.   Last week we got a call.  Could Mr. R come in the next day?  To get them off?  We made the necessary adjustments to our schedule and the boy got them off!  Yippee!

He got to celebrate with some candy and  junk foods he had not been able to eat all year.  It ended up making him sick for 2 days.  Bummer!

He's a HAM!

Not that we didn't already know that, but now he has a license that says he is!

Mr. M has been studying for a long time to get this license.  The intensity was kicked up a bit the last couple of months so that he could have it by hunting season.

A stinky pest

Our first sign of our smelly pest was losing 5 chickens the night we brought them to the new house.   After fortifying their home our remaining 2 chickens stayed safe, but we were seeing signs of that persistent pest trying to get to them too.  Despite all of our best efforts of deterring the thing, it kept coming back.  Our poor girls were stressed.  We needed a more permanent solution.  Mr. M helped with that.

Suspenders

Mr. K was having some issues with his regular attire.  We thought a pair of suspenders would be a blessing to him and to everyone around him. ;)

A trip to the doctor

We've had a virus.  Its just a cold/cough.  Some of our kids have a harder time being sick than others.  Mr. S seemed to be having a very hard time with this virus, but he had some extra symptoms as well.  He had an icky tummy.  It progressed to abdominal pain one evening.  He had a fever as well.  He had a rough evening but by morning he seemed to be doing better with the home remedies that we were trying.  However; by late morning he was feeling awful again.  The fever combined with the abdominal pain (think curled up crying type pain) prompted a call to the advice nurse.  She recommended that he be seen in the next 3 hrs.  The base clinic had an opening with his doctor.  His primary concern was the possibility of appendicitis (same as the nurse's).  Blood work and an ultrasound were ordered.  Then we waited....

Daddy was able to meet us there since classes were over for the day and spring break had begun.

The good news?  His lab work looked good!  The good/bad news?  They could not find his appendix during the ultrasound.  This means appendicitis could not be officially ruled out; but that a badly infected appendix would have stuck out.  He went home to rest.  Turns out that he was just having a harder time with this virus than the rest of the kids.  A few days later he had recovered fully.

My brother Mom....

Mr. K has been joining us in saying prayers at meals and during family devotions.  His prayers sound something like this....

"Thank you God for my brother Mom, my brother Miss E, my brother Dad, my brother Miss C,  my brother Miss J, my brother Mr. S....."

It seems that all of the snickers, giggles and smiles around the table clued him in that there was something funny about this prayer.  Always one to enjoy making his family laugh he began to say his prayers even more enthusiastically.  I love that he loves God, is thankful for his family, and is a constant source of joy in our home.

A zombie at the table

Today a Zombie was spotted at Mr. M's space at the table.  He spent the whole day there.

It was funny to see the double takes from the littles through the day; and it was just a bit disturbing to some of us.  Mr. M thought it was great fun.

Winter work day

Saturdays are work days around here, though they tend to be fun work.  The girls spent the day in the kitchen doing some Christmas baking.  Miss A was so excited to see all of the candy canes being crushed for cookies, she wanted in on the action.

crushing candy canes may be fun, but eating them is better!

Outside the guys were working on the new hen house and a dog house.  No, we don't have a dog.  No, we are not planning on getting one.  Mr. S just wanted to make one and daddy figured it was a good project for him.

Ah, a sweet reward at the end of the day.

Sweet (and smart) boy!

While shopping at Costco Mr. K noticed the flowers....

"Mom!  Look!  Flowers!"

"We get some?"

When I answered that we would not be getting flowers this time he said....

"but, Daddy always gets you flowers"  Daddy was proud of his little guy reminding Mama what a great guy he is. ;)

On our way out this same little guy noticed the quad.  He was sure we should get one of those too.  I pointed out that we really didn't have space for it.  Where would we keep it?

"Ah!  I know!  Outside!"  Was his answer.  Nice try buddy.  Thats still a no go.  Daddy was, once again, proud of his quick thinking though.

Hat storage

Did you think you were going to find some great way to store your children's hats this winter?  Some fool proof way to keep from losing them or having them strewn about the place?  Yea, I'd love to see that too!  Instead you get to see how Mr. K is using a brother's hat to store his cars.  He gets some big points for creativity here! :)

"Hey, mama, my cars in here!"

To show that is was not just a passing moment.  Yes, he really did walk around the house and cuddle with the cat like this.

cut finger, stitches....

8 kids and no stitches, that's 14+ years of children and no stitches!  Until yesterday that is....  Mr. K was (supposedly) taking his nap downstairs, I was sitting on the couch feeding Miss A before her nap, the other kids were all in the kitchen cleaning up after lunch when I heard the cry.  It quickly turned into the sort of cry/scream that I knew could not be ignored.  Something was wrong.  He was hurt...

The scene I walked in on was not at all what I expected.  I had thought maybe he had hit his head on the bunk bed or something.  Instead I found a little boy in the middle of the floor surrounded by his big brother's back pack (and everything that had been in the back pack) and blood all over his hands.  Among the contents of the backpack on the floor I spotted a blood covered (open) pocket-knife. I quickly grabbed him and took him to the laundry room and to discover which hand/finger was hurt and applied pressure with a clean rag before taking him upstairs (where first aid supplies are kept) with the intent of cleaning and bandaging.  One quick look (once upstairs) told me that I could not handle this on my own, despite my desire to avoid the ER.

I'm so thankful to all of my kids who flew into action as I cared for their little brother.  One brought me the first aid kit (before we realized it was not needed).  Miss J thought through the situation enough to know that Mr. K would want a toy car and put it in my bag.  She also packed snacks and water bottles.  Mr. R had very willingly taken Miss A from me at my first realization of a problem and continued to care for her and get the two of them (he and her) ready to go to the ER with us.  Mr. M investigated the mess downstairs and recruited Mr. S and Miss J to help with clean up.  He also helped get Mr. K ready to go (pants, shoes, socks etc).  He also helped me get Mr. K situated in his car seat and then took over applying pressure to the wound while I drove to the ER.  Miss E held my phone so that I could listen/talk to the advice nurse while caring for Mr. K and moving around to get myself ready to leave.  She then held down the fort while I was gone so that I did not have to take all 8 kids to the ER.  I think we were out the door in 15 minutes or so.

Once we got to the ER Mr. R continued to care of Miss A (who was asleep by this time).  I'm thankful he thought to bring his mini tablet and got it going in the car and waiting room for Mr. K.  Once Mr. K was comforted by this and the car that Miss J had packed he quickly fell asleep (remember, he was supposed to be napping when all of this started).  A friend who is an ICU nurse at that hospital came by to check on us.

We were finally called back where a PA inspected the wound (which was still slowly bleeding over an hour later).  Yep, stitches were needed.  How would I like to approach this with him?  How would he handle this?  He and I moved over to the bed to cuddle.  Hooray, the hospital had (good) wifi!  I let him pick a netfilx movie to watch on my iPad (which Miss J had packed for us).  While he did react when getting a shot to numb the finger and again for the pressure of getting the stitches he did very well overall.  His reaction was more of the verbal sort, but he did lay very still in my arms.

One nurse offered him a popsicle during the procedure and he was very content to sit and lick it while we finished bandaging it and doing paperwork.

He had a rough evening and has often cried out today that his finger hurts.  When asked if knives are toys or if he should be touching them his eyes get big and he says "NO!".  I'm thankful that this painful lesson was not more painful or damaging.  I'm thankful that my kids all worked together in this small emergency.  No one panicked and we got things taken care of in an orderly manner.

I'm thankful that not only do I keep our "Sunday" bag packed with snacks, activities, diapers, wipes etc that I could have grabbed in a pinch, but that I'd also already packed up our errand day bag for the evening prayer meeting.  All the kids had to do was add a couple of things like the toy car and iPad and we were ready to head to the ER.

*I'm an independent Consultant for Thirty-One gifts.  If you're interested in this or other bags feel free to contact me for more information.

Ear (burst eardrum) update

I've been thinking it was about time time to post an update on Mr. S's burst eardrum.  Its been quite a while since it happened.  Early testing showed the expected hearing loss because of the hole in the ear drum.  It needed time to heal before anything could be done (if indeed we would need to do anything, there was a good chance it would heal just fine on its own).  Because of the move it took us a while to get more followup here.  Testing last month showed minimal hearing loss (but he was now in the "normal" range).  It was decided that 2 months of natural remedies to clear up remaining fluid would be tried before moving on to steroids or surgery.  The doctor recommended a nettie pot.

Unfortunately a cold last week lead to an ear infection.  I'm thankful we purchased an otoscope after the last episode, one look and it was obvious the ear was infected.  It came on even more suddenly than last time which lead to a late night battle with Tricare to get a referral to an ER to avoid another burst ear drum (since by that time at night there were no Urgent Care facilities open).  It was so hard to watch him rapidly getting worse and be stuck on the phone battling for what we knew he needed.  Eventually Daddy just took him in while I continued on the phone.  I'm thankful for the (3rd) lady I talked to that understood the situation and the need to be seen ASAP.  Between her and her supervisor they were eventually able to put the needed referral in.

 The antibiotics are doing their job and his ear is recovering.  We will need to head into the ENT sooner than later to find out how much this has set back his healing.  I'm in the process of trying to get that appointment scheduled....

Braces!

Mr. R is officially our first in braces!  This week-end he got to enjoy some of his favorite foods and drinks before they would be off limits for nearly a year and a half.

I took this picture just before walking into the office.

Now with the braces on; he hasn't even made it out of the seat yet.

We are thankful for an office that is not only great at what they do, but also provide a kind, gentle, Christian environment.  We know this orthodontist from last time we were stationed here; we attended church with his family.

Fixed that tooth!

Remember that chipped tooth?  Oh, did you want to know HOW it happened?  I bet you thought he must have been riding his bike or something like that. Nope, nothing so cool.  He was licking a plate.  Someone else thought it would be funny to smack said plate.  Everyone learned a lesson.

The dentist got him in a couple of days later.  Mr. M is an awesome patient.  The dentist was pleased with him.

Here it is.  A little rebar and putty and it is as good as new.

*Oh, and the repair was done on my birthday.  Not how I had planned to spend my day, but so glad it was done.

never a dull moment

We've been in and out of the eye doctor for over a week now.  Then on to costco for lunch and to pick out glasses.  We still have two more kids to go.

I thought I'd take a breath, work on the house a bit for a week and then start hunting around for a new dentist.  No such luck.  Mr. M's tooth got chipped tonight.  Dentist must be found, and seen, NOW.  I'm thankful to God for reconnecting us with an orthodontist at church (we knew the family last time we were stationed here).  HE knew we would need the numbers we exchanged yesterday.  A phone call tonight got us the name of a family dentist that specializes in these repairs and (most likely) even accepts our insurance!  God is good!

Happy Birthday Mr. M!

Mr. M turned 11 this week.  True to his general nature we had a low key, but super fun time celebrating.  He wanted to open his gifts early.  We told him we only had one, but if he wanted to open it the night before he could....

...Yep, we got him a doll!

*For a couple of years now we've joked about getting the boys dolls for their birthdays.  We would say things like "did you go doll shopping?" and "What?  You're birthday is this week, well I need to go doll shopping"  Miss A was in need of a baby doll as she was swiping Miss C's regularly.  This was a good time to play this little joke.

As you can see it wasn't really the only gift, and his other gifts were much more appropriate.

He had been wanting a GOOD yo-yo.  Daddy researched them a bit with Mr. M and got a great one for him.  Its been fun watching him learn some tricks.

Miss A on the other hand thought the doll was a great gift.  Mr. M was kind enough to give it to her.

Bowling was his big request for the day.  We spent a couple of hours bowling and playing the games in the back.  A great time was had by all (well, except for Miss A who slept through it all).  I enjoyed watching our big kids caring for the little ones.

Mr. M was his hero.  Mr. K was so happy that big brother won a ball from the machine for him.

Mr. M ended his day with a laughing fit so long and hard that I thought we were going to end up with a tea party on the ceiling!

Happy Birthday Mr. M!  You are growing into quite the young man.  We are looking forward to seeing what God does in your life in the coming years.  Thank you for being a source of great joy in our home!