My husband is an…interesting…sort of guy. This was my Valentine’s Day gift.
Yep, he had a cockroach named for me. Isn’t he great?! “Cockroaches can survive a nuclear holocaust, and so can our love.” His words.
Yay.
It’s gross, disgusting, and possibly insulting, but to be honest, I’m smiling as I write this. Somehow he came across this and couldn’t resist, and it IS kinda funny :)
And he was smart enough to bring home flowers and chocolates…
Inspired by Pinterest (and who isn’t these days?!), our family had a Minute to Win It game night. It was loads of fun, and I hope you’ll bear with me as I post TONS of pictures- hey, it’s my blog, after all!
First up, ‘Throw Marshmallows Through a Wreath!’ It’s as simple as it sounds :)
Minion 1was super-impressed with Hero’s shot!
And the winner was Awesome McAwesome with EIGHT marshmallows!
Next, we had one minute to stack cups into a pyramid. The older kids had to use one hand, while the younger ones played an easier version.
The best part of this game?
Knocking the cups down!!
Then they played ‘Get the Cotton Ball to Stick to the Vaseline on Your Nose.’ Don’t you just love my creativity with the names of these games?! Hero, McAwesome, Sweetheart Girl, and Twinkle were the only ones that wanted to do this one. Minion 1 and Minion 2 did NOT want anything on their noses!
Here are pictures of the classic ‘Get the Cookie in Your Mouth Without Using Your Hands.’
She did it!
Next was an impromptu change since my materials weren’t going to allow us to follow the original rules. With a partner, you needed to place as many ornaments as possible on a yard stick that was balancing on a paper towel tube.
We’re almost done, I promise!
Next, the kids had to see how many candy canes they could move from the table to the Christmas tree in one minute. The catch was that they could only use their mouths! Let the fun begin!
And the winner (with SIX candy canes) was…
Twinkle!!!!! She used her hands ;)
Here are the girls celebrating Twinkle’s victory!
And finally, ‘Stack Mini-Marshmallows on a Popsicle Stick.’
There you go- lots of pictures, lots of fun! But, in case you’re dying for just one more picture, here’s one of my favorites from the night:
Well, it’s over! All the kids are asleep, I’m prepared for tomorrow, and I can breathe!
Our first day was okay. Hero, McAwesome, and Sweetheart Girl were all excited, and thankfully they maintained their enthusiasm throughout the day. About 20 minutes into the morning, all three little ones suddenly demanded my attention, and I could not seem to get them occupied with anything! I admit, I spent a few minutes berating myself in my head for even attempting this this year with practically all new materials. I did send a text to my husband telling him that I was going to need a Coke by the end of the day! (He took my oh-so-subtle hint, by the way!)
Eventually, the littles calmed down and I was able to focus some attention on the big kids. It felt a little disjointed, as I didn’t figure very well how much time some subjects would take, but I suppose that will work itself out as we get into a rhythm.
My biggest disappointment of the day is that I didn’t take any pictures!! They all dressed themselves so nicely, but then the morning took a bad turn for a while there, and by the time I thought about it…well, they all had lunch leftovers on their faces :) Guess I’ll have to get some later in the week and pass them off as the “first day of school” pictures years down the road!
I’m still here! But in a different place! We’ve finally moved, and that’s one of the main reasons I haven’t been around here for a while. We didn’t even have phone or internet for nearly a month!
So we’ve officially moved into a wonderful new home, to which my husband lovingly refers as a mansion. It’s not that large, but we have nearly 3000 sq. feet of space to grow into! We still can hardly believe we’re living here and are in awe that the Lord would provide such a home for our family. Since the actual moving took place much later than we’d expected, we had only a few days before we had guests arrive!
My mother-in-law and niece came for a two week visit! It’s been 4 years since we’ve seen them, so needless to say we were so happy to have them come, and we had a great time. We didn’t really do anything too special, but even just being at the house was enjoyable. All the kids got along well, and that always makes for a nice visit!
They left last Wednesday morning, and Thursday night my sister and her family flew in to town! We had them with us through the weekend. Their daughter is about the same age as my older kids so they loved having another playmate around!
So this week I’m finally trying to get settled into the house! We had all the important stuff in, but our garage is still full of boxes to be sorted through. Little by little we’ll get it all done!
We have a busy summer ahead of us. This week our church is having Vacation Bible School in the evenings, next week my husband will be away at Teen Camp, and then we’ll have two weeks of ‘normal’ at home. I say ‘normal’ because those two weeks will be largely spent preparing to leave for the Spiritual Leadership Conference hosted by Lancaster Baptist Church in California, and from there we will be driving to Oregon for a vacation/family reunion. All in all we will be gone for roughly 3 weeks! By the time we get home, it will be time to prepare for our next school year and I’ll be in the final couple of months of this pregnancy! I figure we should be all settled in just in time for this baby to make his arrival and throw us into another couple months of chaos! I wouldn’t have it any other way!
Yes, I typed his on purpose! We are expecting a little boy! All of the kids wanted a boy, so I’m happy we could accommodate their wishes :)
Many of my friends and family reading this already know the name we’ve chosen, but I think I’ll keep at least that much secret from the internet world until the big day!
Okay, I think we’re all caught up!
Whew! Since coming back from Mexico (which was fabulous!), we haven’t stopped!
After being gone for just a few days, there was a lot to catch up on, and by Thursday, the kids and I needed to get out of the house! So we met a friend at the children’s museum, and spent the morning playing there. This is the first time that Twinkle has interacted with the exhibits so she was fun to watch. Apparently, Minion 1 developed a fear of the dinosaur section and wouldn’t let us go in it! It’s a small section and I was able to stay out with Minion 1 while the big kids went in- but he about fell apart at the thought of Minion 2 and Twinkle going in- it was hilarious (in a sympathetic way, of course). Here are a few of my favorite pictures:
I'm blaming pregnancy brain, but I can’t even remember what we did Friday, and Saturdays are always busy with church soul-winning, errands, and preparing for Sunday morning. Due to our other activities, the house was extra messy, and we had guests coming over for Sunday dinner, so I REALLY needed to clean house!
Sunday was an absolutely wonderful day. My husband preached a great message on separation and holy living, and it was really a challenge to our church to step it up! Our afternoon was filled with good fellowship, and the evening message was just as convicting (for me, anyways).
On Monday we took the kids to the county fair, and spent a few hours there. The first thing we did was watch the shark show. We got good seats, but we had to wait for a good 20 minutes or so. When the show was starting, they played the JAWS theme music. That music scared Minion 2! It took a little convincing to get him to stay and watch the show! We explored the 4-H area, the petting zoo, and saw a couple more shows, and then this mama needed to go home! I was beat! A few pictures from our day:
Tuesday, our church hosted a Bearing Precious Seed conference. This is a ministry out of Ohio (I think) that prints Bibles, New Testaments, John and Romans, etc. in many languages and sends them out all over the world to missionaries and churches that request them- all in the good ol’ King James! Really, all we were doing was opening our building for them to use, but somehow there was a miscommunication and we found out Monday morning that we were supposed to serve breakfast and lunch for them! Oops! We were scrambling a bit, but a dear lady from church (thank you- I know you’re reading this!) came and helped, and everything was pulled off without a hitch! The kids were great, which was such a blessing because staying calm and occupied while Mom is busy all morning and preachers are in a meeting is no small feat for 6 children!
All that last minute stuff was really a blessing in disguise for me, though, because I had not planned on going to the meeting, as there was no need for it. However, I had not even thought that the couple running it were dear friends, and I would not have seen them if I had not gone. The time spent with Miss Bonnie was so precious, and I’m so thankful the Lord arranged all of it!
Tuesday night we observed the Lord’s Supper with the church family, and that is always one of the best services of the year for me. It’s still amazing to me that Jesus Christ was willing to sacrifice Himself for me. I hope it never becomes ‘old news’ to me.
Oh, and Tuesday the paperwork was signed on the house! Praise God!!! We spent all day Wednesday there beginning the cleanup work! The fridge and freezer smelled so I began cleaning that. On the surface, it didn’t look too bad…but then I started taking the inside apart…ugh! I found a back panel that I think the previous owners didn’t realize was there because the original tubing for the water line was still there- anyways, they definitely never removed it because behind was blood and food drippings and particles. When I took apart the door shelves in the freezer, there was mold everywhere! It took me over an hour to get that thing cleaned out to a point where I felt I could be comfortable putting our food in there!
Okay, to wrap up this novel, Thursday I was wiped out and sick (I felt it coming on since Monday) and was of no use to anyone (not entirely true because the family did get to eat, and I did get the girls’ disaster of a room organized and ready to pack), and today we spent another day at the house cleaning, fixing, and prepping. I’ll show pictures of the house in a later post.
Well, I’m off to bed- oh wait, it’s only 8:15…there is a pile of laundry on the loveseat that I should probably attack..
I think my children believe the camera will steal their souls or something! This is what we came up with this year :)
I do what I can…
It’s bad enough we put the wise men in our nativity scenes when they didn’t come around until a couple years after Jesus’ birth!!
Who are these guys?!?!
Awesome McAwesome put his Mars Heroes up the other day (and they’re still there!), and he’s been quite pleased with himself since!
I feel I must point out that the Mars Heroes are good guys- two are watching the baby Jesus, and the other one is standing guard.
I don’t plan on them being a part of this scene next year!
Well, if you saw the pictures yesterday, you might be wondering what happened!! On Tuesday at about 3pm, a couple of teenagers crashed into the brick wall that borders our back yard. Poor kid is seventeen and without a license. Busted!
My guess is that he was speeding through the curve nearby and lost control. It’s 25 mph (it’s a residential zone, people!), but people fly through there. It’s downright dangerous at certain times of the day- teens and SUV moms are the worst offenders. Sorry if you drive an SUV, but you can guess my meaning by that.
Praise God, the back part of our backyard is fenced off for the sheds and our landlord’s camper. The kids are never back there, and I’m rarely out there. As it happened, I was vacuuming and listening to my MP3 player at the time and didn’t even hear the crash. When I turned the vacuum off, McAwesome looked out the sliding glass door and said Mr. Landlord was here. I looked and thought, Ummmm…no.
I went out and the two teens were already out of the truck. They said they were okay, but the passenger had cactus in his arm and chest (the passenger’s door was in the cactus). I went inside to get some gloves to help pull the cactus out, Hero called Daddy-man, and when I got back outside, one sheriff’s car was there and another was pulling up. Within minutes, my husband, an ambulance and fire truck were on the scene.
So that’s what happened. I’m not sure yet about how things are getting fixed, but that will come.
Oh, and last night our church van was in an accident! No one was hurt, but everyone was pretty shook up.
So…not really in the mood to drive any time soon :)
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