Most years, I LOVE the holidays. I like to cook Thanksgiving dinner and have everyone over at my house. I love decorating the tree and doing our Christmas traditions with the kids. I usually always send out Christmas cards and prepare for Christmas day all of December. This year, it just wasn't there. I was avoiding the holiday season like the plague. All I could think about was trying to afford all the Christmas gifts for my kids on our salary or disappointing/upsetting someone when we chose when/where we were spending Christmas. I spend most of my days very tired and all the extra work did not sound fun to me this year. My idea of a good Christmas, was my warm bed and a good book. I basically had turned into a Grinch. Well, obviously God had other plans for me.

It began with a Christmas concert Jeremy and I had bought tickets to about 2 months before. It was a Chris Tomlin concert with Christy Nockels and Louie Giglio (sp?) was speaking. We almost didn't make the concert, Caroline came home from school that day with strep. The music was wonderful and it helped me remember how much I love teaching my children all of the Christmas carols. Then Louie stood up and spoke. He basically hit home. He spoke of the true meaning of Christmas in a way I had never heard it presented. He spoke about the verse in Luke that talks about God's word becoming flesh. I immediately felt humble, realizing how many things I should be grateful far and how my complaints had little to do with the actual meaning of Christmas. I went home from that concert with a more open feeling about Christmas and a desire to make sure my kids understood the true meaning.

To be honest, I would have been good with just that kind of reminder, but there was more. A few days later, I find out that an internet buddy, with whom I had met while pregnant with Thatcher, little boy (who is the same age as Thatch) was diganosed with leukemia. Now, I am watching through Facebook this family battle this news so bravely. They seem to be taking it all in stride and all I could feel at first was guilt. My problems with Christmas seemed to be so insignificant now.

The last thing that happened was so heart wrenching that I still tear up thinking about it. I grew up with a couple who were not family by blood but helped my mother raise me. Pud and JC were like a second set of parents for me and I always knew that they love me like one of thier own. Because we were so close to Pud and JC, we were also close to thier relatives. Last Saturday, Pud's brother Pat was in a hunting accident. Pat was not injured but he accidentally shot his 42 yr old son, Kyle. Kyle died leaving a wife and 2 sons.

All of these events, have affected me in so many ways but most of all I am no longer a Grinch. I look around my house, with the Christmas tree and stockings hung from my fireplace, and I have so many things to be grateful for. I have a husband who is so wonderful and loves me unconditionally. I have five healthy, sweet, beautiful children who think I am the greatest mom in the world. But most of all, I have a God that sent his only Son as an infant into a world full of sin. This Son, Jesus, gave his life as the ultimate sacrifice for my sins, so that I could live an eternity with God.

Life is too short for us to spend the holiday stressing about buying the "perfect" gifts, what parties to go too or how much we will get from everyone. We should spend our holidays, enjoying family traditions, making strangers smile and most of all spreading the love that Christ brought to earth for all of us.
So from my family to yours

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Basketball Season has begun!

Since the time I found out Caroline was a girl, I have waited for this moment in life. It is winter basketball season, Caroline is playing and I get to coach her!! I don't know what I would have done if she really didn't like sports. I am so excited about coaching. The age group is 7/8 yr old girls and I have 8 girls varying in skill level. I only knew a few girls from our summer session, so I basically guessed on who to pick. There are 9 teams, and only 2 other female coaches. The men coaches seem to be a little competitive, but they seem very nice.

As far as teams go, my team seems to be decent. We have only had 2 practices. My girls are sweet and mostly well behaved. The parents seem to be very nice too. I have so much I want to teach my girls. I want them to be great ball players, but I also hope to show them how much fun basketball is. I am so nervous about our first game, it is a little over a week away and I am already planning. LOL! Part of me doesn't care if we win, because all I want is my girls to learn and improve. The other, more competive me, wants to wipe the floor with all the other teams. Especially the teams coached by the guys. I get the impression that they think the "chunky girls coach" doesn't know much about basketball. Now that is just a feeling I get, no one has said anything outright. Maybe it is my insecurities playing out, not sure. All I know is that this is gonna be FUN!!

The TV Monster

I know it has been awhile and I should probably do an update but this is a topic that I would like some help on.

Our summer was a complicated one, with me being pregnant and Ayden getting HFM disease. We spent alot of time inside or with company here to help me with the kids. One of the results of this past summer is Thatcher watches way too much TV. And of course, Ayden is not far behind him. Now that I am feeling better and getting a handle on having 3 little ones at home, I would really like to cut down the TV watching time during the day. That is where I am stumped!! I run out of things for them to do. I need things that they can do while I clean or take care of Blake and also things we can do together. Also these things need to be things we can do at home.(taking all 3 to the park by myself is a task I only take on occasionally) Any suggestions?

Here are some things we already do together:
playdough
coloring
They both "help" me clean when I can let them.

Please post your comments on things for us to do, any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Blake's Story

A week before Blake arrived, I started having strange symptoms. I felt achy and would break out in cold sweats. After a day in the hospital, I was diagnosed with pregnancy induce hypertension and sent home on bedrest. I have to say, that bedrest, is AWFUL! My mom was at my house to help. It was very hard to watch her do everything while I sat in a chair and did nothing. I did not feel bad unless I got up and moved around. The dr. told me when I was released from the hospital that, he was gonna induce at 37 weeks because of my PIH. Well, 37 weeks also happened to be the week before school started for my older girls and we still needed school supplies and uniforms. So Monday afternoon, August 2nd, I went to Target to get uniforms with Jeremy and the girls. I was suppose to ride one of those carts that you drive around but they were both being charged and I figured if I started to feel bad I would just sit down. The shopping trip went well and I had no trouble.

The next morning about 3 am, I woke up to go pee and when I sat on the pot, there was gush, that was not me peeing. I was a little confused but still half asleep so I ignored it and went back to bed. Well, at 5 am when I woke up again to go to the bathroom, the gush happened again. A little light went off in my head and I realized my bag of water had a leak. So I woke Jeremy up and we headed to the hospital. There we found out that, my water was leaking and I was admitted. My dr. let me go until noon, to see if I was going to start labor without any medication to help. At about 1 pm they started me on pitocen. Somewhere in the trips to the bathroom, my bag of water broke completely. It wasn't until about 7 that I started to really feel the contractions. I got my epidural at about 8:30 or 9:00 pm when I was about 5 to 6 cm dialated. I was ready to push at about 11:45 pm but the dr. didn't get there until 12:20 am, so I waited. Once everything was set up, I pushed 3 or 4 times and Blake came!! It was my easiest delivery!

We came home about 2 days later. Life has been hectic since. We have had Ayden's 1st birthday, party, since Blake was born on his birthday. Lots of people came to visit and see our new baby. Now it is just us! It goes pretty smoothly most days. Jeremy caught a cold, now Ayden has it. The girls started school. OH! And Caroline's team won thier league tournament, after placing 4 out of 5 for the season. Hopefully with all that is going on, I can keep up with the blog too!

And then there were 5

At 12:40 am on August 4, 2010, Blake Mykal was born. She came into this world weighing 7lbs 2ozs and was 18 1/2 inches long. She is a beautiful baby. Her due date was August 23 but obviously she doesn't like schedules. We are home and doing well. My family has left so now I get to experience the joys and hustle of being a mother to 5 children 8 and under. We are so in love with this little miracle that I can not imagine how we ever thought we were done with Ayden. Her birth story will show up in the next few blogs. I am just too tired to blog anymore.

So very excited!!

God has played a very HUGE role in both Jeremy and I's life. But I have to admit, as far as church attendance, we have not been the greatest. In Monroe,we had a student ministry that we were very involved in. When we moved to Jennings, we tried Bethel, where the girls eventually went to school. I hate to admit it but Bethel was never really a church home for us. We always felt like we didn't quite fit in and so it was a real struggle to attend church on Sunday or Wednesdays. Jeremy became a member at Bethel because that is where he was baptized. I still remained a member at the church I grew up in.

This past Sunday, we joined a new church. We have visited it several times and it was so welcoming from the start. Everytime I would leave thier church services, I always wanted to go back for more. I wanted to join after the second visit but Jeremy was a little more cautious. Finally, Sunday, he was ready to join too. The people there are so nice and welcoming. I am ready to become involved and meet people. It hasn't been since high school (at the church where I grew up) that I had a REAL church home. I miss the friendships and the learning experiences that come with going to church regularly. I also want my kids to grow up with a church family that will teach them and support them.

Finding a church is another step towards making Mandeville our home. We are still adjusting to this new home town and hopefully this is a good step forward.

Thank goodness June is over!!

Well our June started off really nice with our vacation but then everything went down hill. The last day and a half of our vacation, Ayden began to run a pretty high fever. It got to where we were rotating Motrin and Tylenol every 2hrs just to keep his fever down. On the 3rd day of this fever(we were home by this time), his lips broke out with what looked like fever blisters. I had never seen a baby have fever blisters so young but I am prone to having them and so is Caroline so I thought maybe b/c his fever had gotten so high he broke out. At the end of the 3rd day, we realized that not only were the blisters on his lips but also all over the inside of his mouth.
So the next morning, Jeremy brought Ayden to the dr. He had hand, foot, and mouth disease. If you don't know what that is, LOOK IT UP, if you have kiddos or want them in the near future. Caroline had it when she was little but not nearly as bad as Ayden. I didn't think it could get that bad. For a week, unless he was sleeping he was crying or laying on my lap. He was HORRIBLY sick!! It actually took 2 weeks before he was getting back to normal. But let me take a step back, a week after Ayden started running fever, Thatcher started. So I had two sick kids for another week. Thatcher was not nearly as sick as Ayden but he ran the high fever and was miserable for about 2 weeks.
Now everything was getting back to normal this week when our A/C went out. It has been HOT HOT HOT at our house for about 3 days. The guys are here today fixing it. So yesterday, we used some of Jeremy's hotel points and stayed at a hotel with an indoor swimming pool so the kids could swim and sleep in a cool room. We all had a blast!!
July started yesterday and I am looking forward to this month being a little easier. Caroline has started basketball and is loving it. By the end of the month, I will have a nephew, Gabriel and next month Blake comes. We got some good news about Blake. They are looking at an induction date of Aug 15th or around there. I am really looking forward to the last part of our summer being less stressful than the first part!