Goodbye 2014

It has been a good year.  It is time to say goodbye.

This year included:
Baby C born in February
My brother's wedding in June
Family vacation to Alabama and the beach in July and August
Loss of vision in right eye and diagnosis of MS in August
K started 10th grade, C started 8th grade, A 5th grade, and J 2nd grade in August
J getting baptized in November
All together for Thanksgiving
Trip to Idaho for Christmas

Now K is at a dance, C has friends over, J is playing games with us, the babies are trying to sleep, and A is with her other family.

Hello 2015.  Excited to see you!  I am blessed for sure.

The big kids are gone.

Post divorce life is good. I had no idea that I would ever be this happy again. I am so blessed. But, one thing I will never enjoy is being without my kids.  It stinks.   We haven't seen A for the last week and a half. We will not see her this holiday season. And, we had to say goodbye to K, C, & J this morning. We will not see them for a week. This breaks my mommy heart. 

I truly am so blessed to have the life that I lead. The heartaches are so much fewer. I have been taken care of. There is no doubt about that.  I am a blessed woman.

St. Louis: Christmas #1, part A

Wow!  It is Christmas-time and this means concerts, recitals, basketball games, parties, and so on and so forth!  It also means that as I was already behind, now I am WAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYY behind.  -sigh-

So, once again, I will post in the middle.  We went to St. Louis last weekend to spend time with A.  This was our "Christmas" with her.  It was the first time that we flew with both babies.  It actually went really well.  I feel so blessed with how it all turned out.  This was especially amazing since I had had some worsening of MS symptoms, then K had a choir concert until late Friday night and we had to leave our home at 3:45 am to get to the airport for our early flight.  It appeared to be the recipe for disaster, but it turned out just fine.  We were blessed and taken care of for sure.

Here V is playing at 5:30 in the morning waiting to board our flight!  She thought this playground was awesome!  I thought it was great that we were the only ones there!

 V loved looking at our plane.  Well, all the planes.  She was soooooooo excited.  It was much more exciting for her to see them out the window than to actually get on one.

 V has a little play phone....and she was taking pictures of Baby C and I with it.  :)

 Sitting down on her first flight with a seat.  She went many times as a lap baby, but this was her first one in a seat.  She didn't love it.  She got antsy and hated the seat belt.

 Hello, sunrise!

 Coloring while on the flight.

And here we are....finishing our flight.  Since we have so many pictures of this trip and I will use many of them to represent what we did, I am going to divide this blog post into multiple posts.  Stay tuned for what happened next.....

12-13-14

That's all I have to say about that.

House of the Lord

  

So, yesterday CK and I went to the temple!!!  We have been planning on this date for a couple of months.  Our November date didn't work out...TWICE!  Grumpy baby and busy older kids that needed driving.  But, we got to go yesterday!

I took this picture with my phone as we drove in the parking lot.  I did NOT edit it.  I did NOT photoshop it.  I did absolutely nothing to it.  I think it was the fog that the camera caught, but it looks so cool.  

So, to back up, my friend and visiting teacher, Sister G came and watched V and Baby C.  She is an angel to donate a full day for me.  We left at 8:50 and figured we had a good chance of making the 10:00 session.  But, then we got on the freeway.  It was moving nicely.  Sweet!  Then it STOPPED.  Completely stopped for about 40 minutes.  It was frustrating.  Here Sister G was donating her time so we could sit in a car on the freeway.  They had shut all lanes down so we could not even more to exit.  

But, my friend, mentor, and angel, J, was texting with me and said she would say a prayer for us.  And, quickly, the freeway was reopened and we started moving.  This was humbling.  I am usually one who turns to the Lord immediately in any circumstance, good or bad.  BUT, with all my frustration, I did NOT pray for assistance.  I guess I thought He already knew we were headed to the temple and He could help us.  But, everything we pray about He already knows.  That doesn't mean we stop praying!  I was humbled for sure.

It was a wonderful session and tender mercies and inspiration abounded.  It was nice to be "home."  My MS has really been acting up, but I knew that God was pleased with the desires of my heart and I knew that I can trust in His abilities to create healing and miracles.  I did not have any impression as to whether this is His plan for me, but I was reassured that He could should He choose.  Something I already knew, but the reminder is precious.

Yes, my MS is worse than it ever has been.  I have heard that for people with MS the holidays are always bad...fatigue and stress...two horrible things for the MS.  I have a loss of balance, numbness in my leg and arm, and some memory issues.  -sigh-  Not fun.  But, I know that this life is short and I know that I will be protected by the Lord.  If I put my faith in Him, I will have all that I need.  I am so blessed.  So very blessed, indeed.

Vism of the day.

I love the faith of a young child.  V and I were playing a game where I would pretend to sleep and she would wake me up. One time she woke me up and I said, "Are you an angel?".   " No," she said, " I am a child of God.". I love her faith and her sure knowledge that she is a daughter of God.

C's Basketball Game: 38-22, us!

C had his second game of the season tonight.  I very much enjoy going to watch him play, particularly this year.  He is doing well and the enjoyment shows.  His smile lights up the whole room.  Tonight he played so well.  He scored four points and his number is 4 and it is December 4th.  That is cool to me.  :)  I love football so much more than basketball, so I am pleasantly surprised at how much I am loving the games.  I didn't remember from last year.  Watching basketball allows you to be much closer to the action and to really see the team, including and especially your son!

He has gotten good at passing.  His team worked so much more as a team this week than last week.  Even though they won last week, they just didn't look as cohesive.

This shot was taken just before one of C's awesome plays.  The other team was shooting free throws.  I was wondering why C would come stand back by his coach, but not chat with him and just stand there.  In fact, I asked CK and he explained that they were hoping the other team would forget about C and that they could throw him a long pass and he could easily lay it up.

Well, almost immediately after CK explained it to me, that exact thing happened.  It was a wobbly pass and the other team booked it down the court, so C had to really hurry.  But, he made the lay up!  :) 

Baby C and V came to the game with us.  I love these two.

And, finally, after the game was over, I waited for C to change while CK took the two littles to the car.  I caught this shot as they left.  It took me a minute to grab my camera so they aren't so close, but it still is a tender shot for me.

I love seeing CK carrying Baby C and holding V's hand after watching our son's game together.  He is an amazing dad.  He is an amazing best friend.  He is just plain amazing at everything he does and I am one very lucky and blessed woman to have him.  We have a great marriage.  We have a great family.  We are blessed beyond measure. 

I still have a lot to catch up on, but, I blogged about today ON today!  WooHoo!

My kids

So, I do indeed have a million zillion posts to post.  We had a great Thanksgiving break and that means LOTS of pictures.  That means I haven't caught up yet.  I don't even have J's baptism on here!  It has been a month!!!!

But, for today's post I just am posting some pictures of my favorite people taken yesterday or today.

Here is Baby C.  He was watching the dog out the window.

 Here are C and C together.

 And, tonight was AWESOME.  C was playing with V.  It was soo cool and fun to watch.  I did make a video that I hope will help me remember this forever.  Here they are doing push-ups.

 Here is V doing carpet angels.

And here they are running and running.

 J is 98 months!

And, finally, here is baby C all cuddle up to me and snoozing away.  Oh!  How I LOVE these moments!  I love cuddles.

I am truly one blessed Mama.  Life is crazy.  Crazier than I ever could have imagined.  Six kids and all these different schools and ages.  But, so worth it.  I love them ALL to pieces.  :)  I am sooooooooooooo lucky!

 

Family Party #8

Monday we were able to have another family party.  This was part of the invitation this time:

It is the moment you have been waiting for....another Family Party!  Family Party #8 is right around the corner!

It will be an evening of fun!

Who: You!

What: Family Party #8

When: Monday, around 2:30 pm, or whenever Dad is done with work

Where: Start at the shoes!

We will begin (or maybe end) at the book palace, where we all love to go!

Next, we will plug our noses so the smell doesn't overcome us.

Finally, since we will all be hungry, we better jump to it and eat!

As it is Thanksgiving week, we all give thanks for our wonderful family! Let's smile, take pictures, and enjoy the afternoon/evening! When we get home, we will conclude by having Family Home Evening together. What could be better? NOTHING! We love you!

So, the first one is pretty obvious....we went to the library.  We all love to go there and we had a few books due, so we went all together.

Second, we went to the Stockyards.  A had never been and had been wanting to go.  It is a classic touristy place...and boy was it crowded with Thanksgiving tourists!  I had originally made the clue more obvious, but the kids love to figure out the clues, so I made it a little harder.  What the four of them decided was it was the Christmas Tree....ha ha!  Nope, the smell wasn't pine, it was cattle.  

 We so live in the age of selfies!

 We are both squinting, but we don't get pictures together often!  I sure love this man!

 And...the cattle drive!  Definitely a must-see!

 Then, C, J, and A did the cattlepen maze.  They had a great time and it was fun to watch.

 V enjoyed watching from the observation tower.

Clue #3 was dinner at Ihop.  This took the kids the longest time to figure out.  They kept coming downstairs for hints.  When I told them to find synonyms for "jump," I thought they would figure it out for sure...but they didn't.  Even me hopping around the living room didn't clue them in for a LONG time.  It was rather humorous to CK and I.

 We have brought cards to play games while we wait.  I guess it is a tradition.  CK and I took care of the babies and they played "O, Heck!", even the forehead round.  :)

 All in all, it was a wonderful evening.  My favorite times are when my family is gathered around me.  I am so blessed to have a large family and, as crazy as we get, I wouldn't ever wish it away.  I love all six of our children!  They belong with us and they belong together.  The Lord works in mysterious ways, but He has created beauty where once there was heartache and sorrow.  I always knew I would be okay.  But, in my wildest dreams, it wasn't THIS good!  I am one blessed woman indeed.

My favorite people!!!

Love being all together!!!!!!

J's Teacher

J's teacher accepted another position. It is a great opportunity of growth for her. It will be exactly what her family needs. So I cannot be too bitter.

But, this is very hard for J.  She is an amazing teacher. I've been so grateful that J was put in her class for second grade. She really pushes the kids. I appreciate that. J has really grown to love her. And, once he grows to care about somebody, he does it with all his heart. 

The Mommy part of me also worries about him having multiple subs while they try and find another teacher.  I know that some are very good. I have been a sub, and hopefully I did an okay job. But, it isn't their class. They won't know routines and individuals.

This is a very difficult situation for us. And, I know it isn't easy for Mrs L either. We just have to chalk it up to you one of those growing experiences that life brings us.

Blast From the Summer!

As I was going through pictures, I noticed this one that is one of my favorites from our summer vacation. There is one foot print from each of the eight of us. From left to right it is in order from oldest to youngest.

I really love it, but I especially love it knowing that it's only supposed to be 22 degrees tonight.  Ahhh!  The beach!  I don't think I included it earlier on the blog, but if I did, here it is again.  I don't remember if I finished all the vacation posts before MS took over our world.

  Notice that V's print is a shoe print since she hated the sand and I didn't even try to get her to take off her shoes.  Baby C's print next to her almost looks like a shell.  I guess I didn't push his heel down hard enough to leave an impression.  :)

J has his Bobcat!

J received his Bobcat tonight.  I am proud of him. I am glad he loves scouts.  I am very grateful for the BSA and their inspired program.