Minute to Win It Night

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:

Mornings Like These…

Minion 1, Minion 2, and Twinkle were up before five, Hero started throwing up after breakfast, the twins have no clean underwear, there was a hair gel accident in the bathroom, the house is in a general state of messiness….mornings like these make me wish I drank coffee!

What’s Going On Here…

Well, we’re just in the waiting period for this baby now!  A couple weeks ago, I was having tons of contractions, and several times I thought they were the real thing (obviously, they weren’t!).  We were excited and felt like the birth was imminent!  But here we are, two weeks later, with no baby in our arms yet!

My due date is still not until next Monday, so it’s not like I feel like I’m overdue or that we should have had the baby by now.  It’s just that all signs were pointing towards a soon delivery!  Last week, all those signs pretty much went away!  I had only occasional contractions, and they were never worth paying attention to!

I am working with the midwives at Tucson’s Birth Center, and since I am a VBAC, I am on a bit of a time crunch.  I would be even if I were at an OB.  I only have so much time before I risk out and become a repeat c-section.  I suppose I could refuse and just wait for this baby to be born at home, but I’m not too keen on that idea!  I did find out that although the midwives can/will not induce with Pitocin, they can break my water and see if that works.  So if the time comes, I will definitely choose that over a c-section!  Of course, if we (mom and/or baby) get to a point where a c-section seems to be the best option, that’s what we’ll do.  I have done it before, and while I hated it, it wasn’t the end of the world!

Okay, enough about that.  Other news:

School is going well!  I think we’re on track in all subjects and ahead in a few.  So any time we take off shouldn’t throw us off too much!

Hero turned 9 years old a few weeks ago.  He has informed me that he feels different now that he’s 9, and he’s already excited to hit double digits next year!

Awesome McAwesome has turned into my little go-getter!  Nearly every day, he asks if he can start his schoolwork before I’m ready, and he often turns down his break time so that he can be finished early and have the rest of his day!  As an admitted procrastinator, I find this trait very admirable! 

Sweetheart Girl can never have enough to do.  Her schoolwork just isn’t enough for her, her chores get done, she asks to help me with stuff all the time, and still she often tells me she doesn’t know what to do!  Sweetheart Girl likes to keep busy!  She’s going to be soooooo much help when the baby is born!

The Minions are going through an independent/co-dependent stage with each other right now.  It’s heart-breaking to one if the other doesn’t want to play with him.  As mom, I find it slightly difficult to find a balance of encouraging the loner to play with his brother and telling the upset one that it’s okay to play by himself for a while!  Of course, they switch off in these rolls daily!

Twinkle’s vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds!  She often speaks in full sentences (baby ones), and we are surprised at times at how clear she is.  Even when we’re not sure exactly what she’s saying, she finds a way to make herself heard- which sometimes is not so pleasant!

My laptop charger died the other week, and my battery is dead.  So until I get a replacement charger, I’m stuck using the desktop.  It’s slightly inconvenient since most of my files and pictures are on my laptop!  But at least I haven’t lost them- they’re just inaccessible for the time being!

I may decide to give up Facebook soon, as the most recent round of changes are exactly the opposite features of what drew me to give FB a try in the first place!  I’m not saying they’re bad or that everyone should close their accounts, but I liked FB because it was so simple and unobtrusive!  The verdict is still out, though, but if I do give it up, I will try to be a better blogger so my family and friends can still keep up with us!

I guess that’s it!  Hopefully I will be presenting our newest addition very soon!

Soooo Busy!!!!

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..

Potty Training Twins

So my husband is gone for 2 1/2 weeks (one week down!!!), and for some inexplicable reason, I’ve decided to try once again to potty train the twins!  We tried a few months ago, but there was zero progress so we stopped.  Recently, I’ve seen some readiness signs, and since we’re going to be moving soon, I thought I’d better take advantage of this window of opportunity before we’re thrown into a bunch of changes!

We’re on our fourth day, and it’s not gone nearly as badly as I’d thought it would!  They’re only wearing diapers during naps and bedtimes, and they’ve stayed dry through every nap.  All in all, they’ve each had a few accidents and a few successes, but overall they’re just not going very much!  Of course, they are soaked when they wake up in the morning so they must be saving it!  Neither one has yet told me that they need to go, but they both tell me when they’ve wet their undies.  That’s a good sign!?

One of the biggest obstacles so far is that they are afraid of the toilet!  I tried to take them at church last night, and they both freaked out when I put them up there!  I’m not going to carry their little potties around everywhere, so I may have to consider buying one of these foldable travel seats.

The funny thing is that all three of my older kids hated the little seats and wanted to sit on the real thing!  Ah, kids…

I’m not overly stressed out about this- after all, no kid ever went to college in diapers!  But, I don’t want to be inconsistent!  These two have a tendency to pounce on any inconsistency, and they have each other to back them up!! 

Somehow I believe we will survive this, but when my husband gets home…I’m taking a break :)

Loving Lullabies

*Yes, I know I haven’t blogged in a while…we’ve been sick, busy, out of town, etc., and when I’ve had a few moments to myself, I just haven’t felt like blogging!*

Last night, I experienced one of those ‘I’m so glad I’m a mother, otherwise I would have missed this’ moments.  It happened again tonight, so I thought I’d better write it down, so I would remember how special it was to me!

When I put the Minions to bed, I sing to them.  4-5 nights a week, they do not want to go to bed, and 99% of those times, singing their song calms them down so they can sleep. 

While I’m placing their blankets over them, I sing:

Minion 1, you are my Minion 1

You make me happy when skies are gray

You’ll never know, dear, how much I love you

Please don’t take (kiss) my Minion 1 away (kiss kiss kiss)

Obviously, I use his real name, and I then sing the same with Minion 2’s name in place of Minion 1’s.  The kisses are their favorite part because they change based upon their moods!  The crankier the boy, the crazier the kiss.

Well, last night after I sang, Minion 2 says “My turn, Mommy!”  And he began to sing:

Mommy, you are my Mommy… (complete with kisses)

And my heart cried, “Aaaawwww!”

Tonight, Minion 1 was the first to sing to me.

__________________

I’ve had six children now, and lullabies didn’t automatically work their magic for every one of them, but nonetheless, I sang to them.  I love lullabies!  In the middle of the night, they entertain me as much as they soothe the baby (sometimes much more so)!

Obviously, in a family our size, a lot of things get passed down, reused, and recycled, but one thing that each of my children has received is their own lullaby.

Luke- Edelweiss

Jackson- All the Pretty Horses

Kate- Hush, Little Baby

Minion 1 and Minion 2 - You are My Sunshine (sunshine is replaced with their names)

Twinkle- Jesus Loves Me

I didn’t do it on purpose to start, and I never specifically planned out which song each child would get, but somehow, as I would hold each baby in my arms, these are the songs that poured out.  And, somehow, they just seem to fit each one, and these are the songs that will remind me of their baby days (and nights!) no matter how old they may be!

Christmas Gifts- Episode Four

Here’s one of the twins’ presents.  It’s a bean bag toss game!  One spray-painted cardboard box, some felt for the eyes and teeth, and some cloth and filling (I ended up using rice) for the ‘bean’bags equals a lot of fun…I hope :)

I’m still deciding if I should address this to either Minion 1 or Minion 2, or if I should address both gifts to both boys.  They are definitely entering a possessive stage so single ownership could lead to fights…but is it totally wrong to NOT give them individual gifts yet?  They’re only two…

…But my main dilemma with this gift is…

How do I wrap this?????

Pictures That Make Me Smile

One of the gifts I’m making for the twins is a matching game with pictures of our family.  So today I went through all of our pics from this year, and I came across several that just made me smile!  Don’t get me wrong- I love all the kids pics, but sometimes you get some that are just a little extra special!

We took the kids bowling for the first time ever, and Hero never could bowl without his mouth open!  Most of the time his tongue was hanging out!

Sweetheart Girl had so much fun tossing leaves, and the delight on her face makes me smile :)

Twinkle has been the happiest baby, and every morning we woke up to this face (but maybe not this hair!).  She’s almost one year old now, so her grin has changed a bit, but she still always smiles at us in the morning!

Awesome McAwesome accepted Christ on Father’s Day this year.  I love this pic of my husband baptizing his 2nd son!

This was the Minions’ 2nd birthday, and I just love the mischivious grin on Minion 1’s face.  He’s wearing orange.

Come on, this one’s obvious!

Sweetheart Girl’s first time singing in Patch the Pirate Club.  Tell me she’s not the most adorable sailor ever!!

This one was taken about 4 hours after Minion 2 fell and knocked his tooth out of his mouth!  It’s a miserable story, but he’s a trooper!

Twinkle spent at least a month doing this constantly!

They’ve only done this twice!

This picture makes me smile because of the story behind it.

The ‘men’ were out chopping down a tree, and McAwesome didn’t want to help.  This is his pathetic ‘Please let me in’ look.  I didn’t let him in.

Sweetheart Girl loves her boots!

There’s a story behind this one, too, but suffice it to say, McAwesome wants a mustache ;)

Minion 1’s arm around Sweetheart Girl makes me smile a mile wide!

Because Daddy-man and I so rarely get a picture together…though neither of us actually like the way we look in this one…

On the other hand, I actually like the way I look in this one…if I could photoshop the red nose :o)

And, finally…

This one was taken on my hubby’s cell phone camera and is a bit blurry, but if I could be left with only one picture of Twinkle, this is the one I choose!  Daddy-man and I smile and laugh every time we look at this face!!