Getting ready for Turkey Day!

So I just realized that I haven't updated in over a week!! AGH! Life gets so crazy sometimes that things just kind of fall on the wayside!

The end of last week Jerry took the last couple of days off and we had "learning days" with the kids. We took them to the Boonshoft Museum and we had a BLAST! They had their new display or area up, whatever you want to call it. It was science in toys. We had the whole place to ourselves for about an hour and a half. It was great! The kids had the run of the place and spent quite a bit of time at each spot. There was a house that the kids could "build" around an already set of frame. They put all the "walls" on it and "shingles" and "bricks" and were so proud. I was thinking, "What great kids I have to leave a display all put together and the place looking neat..." I turned my back for 10 minutes and Sydney had gone over to it and taken everything off!! EVERYTHING! She is quite a little tornado of destruction when she wants to be. I was surprised she did it because usually she is my OCD child that has to have everything put away! It was funny!

Then Friday we took them to Chuck E. Cheese's!! Where a kid can be a kid, right?! Well, my kids had a lot of fun there...they usually do! They played all over the place. Sydney climbed off a horse ride the wrong way and was dangling... that was pretty funny (I know... mean mom!). She was freaking out and then dropped the inch, yes... I said inch, to the ground and was fine. Just a little shaken. She walked up the Skee Ball thing too. Xavier walked around and put coins into games and then walked away! Jay and Anna were really into getting tickets and their pictures "taken" by Chuck E. Cheese! All in all it was a great day.

Saturday we got our family pictures taken. And that actually went pretty well! The shirt I wore under my sweater showed in our family picture a little... so that was a little disappointing, but the one of Jerry and I together looked really good. It better too because I ordered 10x13s for our wall!! Ha!

On Monday I took the baby to the doctor and he is 12 lbs. 8 oz. now!! BIG boy!! He is in 6 mos. clothing by Carter's.... I love that brand!! It is so soft!! I bought him 6/9 mos. clothes for Christmas! He is such a good baby too. He took his shot like a trooper and hasn't had any bad effects. A little cranky but I think that is to be expected.

We are still waiting on official word as to where we will be going... a little frustrating but what can you do? Jerry has a bone scan on Monday the 1st and surgery on the 3rd. So our next couple of weeks leading up to Christmas will be very interesting.

Speaking of interesting... my gpa is getting married the Saturday after Christmas. That is in so many ways strange to me. But I am happy that he is happy. Plus I will get to see all (well, most) the family!!

Have a great Thanksgiving!!

Early Thanksgiving and a week of plans!

Since my parents are going to be in the UK for Thanksgiving we decided to celebrate early with them this weekend. They were coming over for a conference at our church so we planned ahead of time what all we were going to do. They ended up not going to the conference but they did get to see Jay and Anna with their project at their FHG History Fair! This week we worked on our Creation project for the fair. I couldn't find the BIG poster board displays anywhere, but did find a smaller one. Worked out perfect, but then we got there and all the other kids had the BIG ones, food to taste, mini displays, papers, and just general what not that I did not THINK about having the kids do... Lame brain mom here did the best she could do with 3 small ones wanting attention too! Next time, I will be more prepared! The kids didn't even notice. They were more interested in looking at the other projects than hanging out around theirs. Jay, however, has Jerry's gift of briefing people. He would talk the people's arm off about what he learned and why we put a picture to the certain day... Anna on the other hand, has mommy's gift of gab. She would rather socialize, but she also knew her stuff!

Sydney has been in big girl panties for 24 hours now and hasn't had any accidents!! (I better find some wood to knock on!) She is doing a lot better. Daddy pointed out a little girl that is a month older than her at the History Fair and told Sydney, "See! That little girl is potty trained! She pee-pees in the potty... she wears big girl underwear. Don't you want to, too?" I am praying that this continues! We even took her to church and out to eat and she stayed dry! Now we just have to get her to make "eggs" in the potty. (#2)

Xavier is doing well. He was gpa's little man this weekend and just ate it up that gpa would read a book to him and he would repeat it and feel like he was reading. Guess preschool needs to start with him SOON! He is going to be a reader I think. Anna is like that too. She just gets it.

Caleb continues to get HUGE! He is due for his 2 mos. immunizations which we have to do this week.... I am NOT looking forward to that. It always breaks my heart when my kids cry at things like shots and things I know they have to do but it hurts them. I kind of think that not all of my hormones are back to normal just yet. There are times that I still feel really emotional about things. I don't like to show the weepy emotions but I feel like that is how I am sometimes. It probably has to do with lack of sleep too!

Jerry is doing well. Working on awards packages and hoping to get our next assignment nailed down sometime soon. He is going to be having shoulder surgery on December 3. So he will be home for most if not all of December! He had a good idea the other day about our family Christmas present... we are going to invest in a King Size bed. All of our kids don't fit on our bed anymore! I think the kids will enjoy having a bigger bed to climb into when they are scared! I know I will enjoy not feeling crowded in my own bed when they come in in the morning! Family movie nights are in the future!!

ANYWAY, this week is more school, scheduling, chore charts, and figuring out how best to encourage good character qualities in my kids! We are looking at going to Chucky Cheese on Thursday and the Boonshoft Museum on Friday. So it should be a fun, productive week.

I hope all are blessed this week!

Restless...

So those of you who know me really well know that when I get restless... I rearrange things! Yep... that is right!! I rearranged my living room AGAIN! That is what? 4 times in the last 4 mos! Ha! Yeah. I got that itch again. I want/need to scrapbook and get them all caught up before our next move. Why, you may ask? Because the thought of movers... packing away my PAPER and my SCRAPBOOKS and my ACCESSORIES is too much for me to handle right now! The last move, I moved it all. Granted we were moving ourselves from 3 miles away, but still. I MOVED IT! So nothing was crinkled or ruined or smashed or LOST! So if I get it all caught up then there will be less to move and less to break or ruin. Or so I hope!

Okay so back to yesterday! While I was rearranging and moving things from here to there, Anna was running the vacuum cleaner, Xavier was watching cartoons and helping every once in awhile, Jay was helping or entertaining the baby, and Sydney was the baby's guardian. At one point, Caleb spit up. I didn't know it. All I saw was Syd throw the top of the blanket he was laying on over his face and her rub his face with her hand. Obviously, it freaked me out a little and I said, "Don't do that! You'll hurt the baby! Take the blanket off his face please!" She turned and looked at me with this look of disgust and said, "EWWW... YUCKY SPIT UP!" So I showed her how to use a smaller burp cloth that wouldn't suffocate him! She is such a good big sister! Just have to work on her gentleness a little more. Caleb on the other hand just looked at her with adoration on his face. It didn't upset him at all that she was trying to help. I think it startled him for a second but then he was all right. I think I was more worried than him!

I have come to the realization that I need to have more structure to our day too. School is going great and the kids are getting it done quickly but I have realized that the rest of our day is kind of like free time. Which for the most part is fine, but I am feeling the pull that I need to give them more. More time working on their character, more time exercising (running circles around my downstairs does not count!), more time playing with each other and working together. I think the reason why I have always hesistated making a "schedule" is because I want my kids to be able to adjust to anything that I want to do at a moments notice. And they do all right for the most part, but that is a very selfish driven reason and I think along the road (if we keep going like this) I will pay the price when they are older. That is my goal. We'll see how it goes!

It looks as though we will be here in Ohio until next year or so. But we don't have any confirmation. We are hoping to get that next week or at the latest the end of November. This is good in a lot of ways. We don't know when we will find out our next place or not. Thankfully, a lot of these decisions we don't have to make. They are made for us. We just keep praying that God's hand will move and put us where he needs us to be and that he will bless where ever we end up!

This weekend is my birthday!! I turn the big 31. I don't feel that old so I guess that is good, right? I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Flu mist is easier than shots!

So I took Sydney to the doctor today, with all the kids... Thankfully, Jerry was able to come with us because it was a little busy! She is good and got her flu shot like a trooper. The older three got to do the flu mist option. While I was waiting with Sydney for her shot, Jerry took the others to do the mist. I asked the kids how they sniffed up the mist and they all made the funniest faces trying to show me how they did it. But the winner of the funniest face was Xavier... he was HILARIOUS! He pulled his eyebrows so far up it looked like they were in his hairline and his nose was practically flat because he pulled his chin down with his mouth closed. I can picture it and it still makes me laugh! I hope that you can imagine it how I described.... if not, sorry, guess you had to be there! ;) Unfortunately, the kids have to stay away from the baby because it is a live virus. So for the next couple of days... it is going to be VERY challenging! Hopefully, no one will get sick!

The kids are doing pretty good. With the lovely weather we have been outside playing and Jerry and I have been trying to get our outdoors ready for winter and a possible PCS. He mowed the lawn, I cleaned out the garage and the front flower beds. Now we just have to get our basket ball goal moved so we can get our trampoline in the garage for the winter! The kids are really excited to have it accessible throughout the winter months... even if it is too cold to be out there!

Tomorrow is voting day! Don't forget to vote!!