Thank You's!!

Many MANY people helped us in the last 3 months, while Papa's back was causing him to hold the couch down and I was 40+ weeks pregnant or snuggling a newborn. Many people brought meals, company and fellowship, took pictures and brought gifts; Jen, Lisa, Ann and Korey, Rosella (and her mom), Justina, Sarah, My Mom and Dad, Mary Anne, Suzanna, Rita, Maria, the Varley Family, Jim and Joy, Blair and Becca, Nicole, Amber and Matt. Some brought gifts for the baby or me or all the kids, some brought meals or snacks or buns/bread, some brought something of everything. Some encouraged us in many different ways. Some watched kids while we had Dr. appointments or trips to the chiropractors office.  Some lifted things and hefted them here or there.   My brother in law and my dad both brought us a 1 ton bag of feed when Papa couldn't drive. Many people prayed for us.. I have no idea who but we felt it. Thank You. Papa and I have never EVER felt so blessed by other people.

I had big plans to print thank you pictures for each of these people and I may get to it yet :)

Sometimes we don't know how to thank people for everything they've done for us.
Sometimes we don't have the words to say.
Sometimes we would love to find the words.
Sometimes someone goes beyond what you expect from anyone.
Sometimes they bless your socks off just because.
Sometimes they take the Biblical principe 'treat others the way you'd like to be treated' to a whole new level.
Thank You Mrs. L!!

Mrs. L who told us she would babysit the kids while we went in to birth our new Baby G.
Mrs. L who INSISTED that she would babysit while we went in to birth Baby G and who did.
Mrs. L who dropped her life in order to help us bring a new life into the world.
Mrs. L who made plans, played games and rearranged her life and the lives of her kids to help us when we needed her... when ever it would be!
Mrs. L who organized meals for us for the 1st ten days or so after Baby G was born, and who made several of them herself.. at our place as well as hers.
Mrs. L who stopped in to 'check on you' and get hugs from the kids several times, until we missed her when she didn't come for a week.
Mrs. L who gave of herself even when her own world has gone a bit sideways.
Thank You Mrs. L!!

Breaking The Houses!! Crashing the Village!!

Trying to smash the houses with their fists!! OUCH!!! 

Our dear friend Lan was with us on New Years Eve for the traditional breaking of the gingerbread house. Or houses this year :) They were SUPER hard to break this year and they actually got them off the tinfoil and then SMASHED them into the board!! Great fun!! 

Slippers From Grandma!!

A bunch of cute kids showing off their new slippers. 

Grandma F made all the kids slippers! 

J's have a fish and a hook for his love of fishing.

L's have dinosaurs.

E's have BIG pom poms!

R's have roses. 

J3 has little pom poms, I'm not sure how she attached them on the slippers but she did a great job as he cannot pull them off.. and he loves to try! 

Baby G are yellow and white and tie around her ankle!! She can't get them off!!

Here she is wearing them while being held by our WONDERFUL DOCTOR Nicole :)
Love her!!

For some odd reason this post got posted unfinished?? Sorry!!

Thanks Grandma for the slippers!! We LOVE THEM!!!! 

Making Pies :)

The kids and I made 4 pies for J's 8th birthday party one morning while Baby G was sleeping. Here is the shell for the pumpkin and an apple. I make the crusts and the kids mix the sugar and stuff and wash and cut the apples, then I put them together. E was quite impressed to be able to use a knife to cut up apples and R was quite jealous!! I told her she could try next time..I need to get a few more cutting boards first. 

Two of the apple pies baking. The one on the right has 8 cookie cut out men on the top!! Pretty neat! 

The Giggles!

Traditions: Gingerbread Houses.

I love this picture!! We got a gingerbread house village this year so each of the older kids could make their own house! J3 and I did the 5th house and Papa smeared icing on everything :) He looks annoyed but he's really not! J and L are holding the roofs of their houses on so the 'glue' can set (icing) and E is showing me the sprinkles to go on top and R is loving the bowls of candy!! J3 wasn't at all interested in building houses with icing and putting candy on them.. he was just interested in the candy!! He's already got one in his hand. We did get him to put ONE on the house.. but that was IT!! LOL. 

The finished village top view! Top, L to R are J's, L's, E's and R's. J3 and I's is the bottom one! 

L's

Mine.

R's.

E's.

Village Side View :) 

J's. 

A Sticky Yummy Treat!!

Papa saw these huge lollipops one day when we were shopping and HAD to get them for the kids... He picked out each color to match each child and  placed them gently in their stockings! The kids eyes POPPED when they saw them and they couldn't wait to 'taste' them!! They are super yummy!!

Can you say SUGAR RUSH?? LOL!!  

Honor Roll!!

J, L and E all made the A honor roll for 1st Term!! Great work!! They worked hard all term and I'm VERY PROUD of them :) 

Christmas Play For Papa Part 2. FINALLY!! :)

I had to upload it to youtube and then on to here so hopefully this works :) 

I LOVE My Washer!!

I know I should be blogging about Christmas and celebrating the birth of our Savior and I will... honest!! Though I will admit my attitude was closer to Grinch this year then it has ever been. But first I have to tell you again how much I love my new washer. The day before Christmas eve I decided that we would NOT be doing laundry for the next week.. minimum!! So we folded the last load and sighed with relief. Now don't get me wrong I don't mind doing laundry, I just like to take a break every once and a while and just NOT do laundry for a bit. Well you can image how fast the laundry baskets piled up. With 5 kids 7 and under and a newborn we go through a LOT of clothes just in one day!! By day 5 I was eyeing totes to fill with the ever growing piles in the already overfull laundry baskets when I remembered something that made me realize that I was going to have to break my laundry fast sooner then I'd hoped. I'd forgotten that we had our last gathering of family on the 1st and ALL our Christmas finery was in those same laundry baskets. I keep my laundry sorting station under the table in the entrance these days because, frankly, there is no other place in the house where it fits! So I have 2 large blue totes for dark laundry, a green laundry basket for colors and a white laundry basket for whites. I started with darks. I always do as they typically take longer to hang dry. I grabbed a tote and heaved it over to the washer and piled it in. It ALL FIT!! Loosely even.. I was awed. I put soap in and turned it on.. 51 minutes later I had a washer 3/4 full of CLEAN laundry!! I must admit volume isn't everything.. I had a terrible time trying to hang dry it all in my entrance!! I ended up hang drying everything I could possibly hang on every clean surface in the room and sticking the leftovers, mostly socks and undies and hand towels, in the dryer! Four loads later I was finished my laundry. I do normally dry all the whites so I did that load second and just dried the leftovers from the 1st load with the white load but by the time I went to bed that night I had 2 loads ready to be folded or folded and another load drying. I actually did 5 days worth of 8 peoples laundry in about 24 hours, INSANE!! and honestly didn't work all that hard at it. I LOVE MY NEW WASHER!! With my old washer I would have only caught up after several long hard days of laundry laundry laundry!!
As it turned out I got Papa's terrible cold the day before the 1st and we ended up missing the gathering but at least now I know how much laundry I can do in a relatively short amount of time and it was all finished for Papa's long weekend :) Which lets me know just how much slack I have if I ever want to have another 'laundry free time'.

Papa read this after I posted it and asked a question that sort of put this post into focus.. He asked how often I normally do laundry... the answer.. everyday!! Normally I do SOMETHING with the laundry every single day of the week!!! Now I don't have to if I don't want too ;)