Chatter Chatter Chatter Box!!

K baby has decided that talking is a fun skill in the last 2 weeks. It is always funny to see what they pick up on first. Of course the very firsts; months ago were NO and WHY!?!? But as she was jibbering in the car and I had no clue what she said I turned and said "No Way!" She looked at me and said "YES WAY" (guess that's one I say too often) She seems to have a bit of her youngest brothers personality...a tad bit silly and mischievous!! She is one strong child. She can hold her own as #6! Lets pray she learns to be a little gentle with her younger brother or sister! She does seem to realize there is a baby but only time will tell on how much she understands about it all. Lets hope jealousy doesn't show its face when we've been so fortunate 6 other times! Hard to believe that she will be 2 years old in just 2 short months!! So funny how they go from baby to little person in just a matter of months!

Shirley Temple

Well I went this AM and watched the cutest red headed Shirley Temple. She was chosen from her class to be "interviewed". They have worked for months on these biography projects. To say the least I completely believe her when she tells me she will work as a TV anchor. She has better public speaking skills then most adults I know. She memorized her entire report to resight as she was interviewed and I don't think stumbled a once. THEN she ended the interview when asked "What song are you most famous for" by standing up and singing "It's a good ship lollipop......" she sang a good portion word for word!! She ROCKED!!! I wish I had it on video because it was just AWESOME!!! Think we will be attending many drama productions in the coming years......

9 More Days Of School!!

I do not think I have ever been SO READY for Summer! I swear this has been a really tough semester around here! I am probably more ready for Summer routine than the kids are!! Does anything really beat afternoons at the pool!?!?

As of now I am busy trying to get things organized around here so we can just enjoy our break. Once Summer is over we will be welcoming Baby C or K so trying to be prepared!

I do have a wonderful husband but could live without some of his wild ideas! His latest was to have the house painted....the entire house excluding bedrooms. So that meant to move everything, take everything off the wall and the painting started before EASTER and just got finished!! :) So after over a month of feeling like we were in the middle of moving we are now in the process of putting everything back in its place!! You know why not? I have nothing to keep me busy in the normal daily routine of cooking, cleaning and caring for a family of 8....that's all left for the little fairies who come and do all those daily chores!! :) Slowly but surely I shall reach this goal too!

Little Red celebrated her 11th birthday :0 last week! Can you believe she is 11 already! She is gearing up to complete elem school and moving up in the world. She continues to be a wonderful leader in her school and continues to be our sweet firey red head here at home!! I really should have known when she let me labor for 24hrs came out sunny side up and hasn't stopped running her mouth since!! But oh how dull our life would be without her in it!!

C Bear lost his first tooth lastnight!! He looks so big now with a gap in his mouth! Only problem now is Sue Bee is trying to get one of hers to fall out.....

Speaking of Sue Bee she has FINALLY gotten her pet pig!! Wilbur! She loves this little guy! She is so very sweet to him singing to him and being his "mommy". She can't wait to take him swimming at the pool and to teach him to dance!! Here is a picture of she and Wilbur. This is right after a bath...he's not that pink anymore!


















As for the others they are all just gearing up for the end of year. Wave Pool parties, Fiesta Texas, Field Day, Picnics, Awards, Graduation you name it we will be celebrating it in the next 2 weeks!

As for now though we intend to be ring in what should be the first weekend of Summer by seeing who can and can not still swim....

I hope to get the older girls birthday pictures taken Monday and I'll post them before their next birthday (maybe) :)

I've been an AWFUL blogger!!

In case anyone ever wondered...you can pretty much count on a CRAZY busy life in this house for the first 5 months of every year for oh lets say the next TWENTY years!! :) We are running non stop pretty much everyday and every weekend. If I ever set still long enough to actually think about things I too would probably ask myself the question everyone asks me "how do you do it!" But fortunately we just take it all one day at a time enjoy every minute of it and go full force!!

Lets see both of the older kids competed in DI regional competition the end of February. Both teams advanced to state that was held in March. We had a break from activities during Spring Break in March and we took advantage of the break doing very little! Went to Sea World one day and then the weather got cold and nasty so we hung around the house playing catch up! Once Spring Break was over it seems the usual craziness kicked into high gear!! After a couple slow months with the business things really picked up in March and April. I have done school pictures for two local preschools which I was really excited about. Another photographer in town has closed her business and has referred many of her regular clients to me! So if Patrick is not working one of his two jobs I usually have a shoot scheduled. Then of course I have to fit editing in between 9pm and 6:30am (a lot can get done at 3am) I am truely loving my work though and it is perfect for our family right now!

We celebrated someones 9th birthday and Easter all in the same weekend! Both were very enjoyable but celebrated between another passing of the stomach bug. (our house is full enough we no longer are accepting visits from her!! She has certainly over stayed her welcome this year)

Somewhere in there we also got 2 four legged family members. A mamma longhorn and her calf and she is about 5mo preg too! So the kids are excited about having a "baby' cow. Sue Bee has big plans on riding them!! If anyone could do it she would!

We are all living life to the fullest and having fun in the process! We are down to just 6 weeks left until Summer and will be welcoming Baby C or K in about 18weeks max!! Ichy is growing great! had a sono last week and everything looked great! The lady knew we did not want to see between the legs so we got many upper body shots. But she did have to snap a picture for us of the tightly crossed legs and said even she does not know if this is a boy or a girl!! We are both very excited about not knowing and the kids are all very irritated about not knowing!!

Life is good- Life is busy- Life is Fun and there's Never A Dull Moment!!

I will post some pictures soon!

What all the kids are up to....

OK Lets see do we start oldest to youngest or youngest to oldest???

Big C- He is BUSY BUSY BUSY!!! His day starts bright and early having to be at basketball practice by 6:30 every morning. (an event mom is very ready to END!!)From there it is GO GO GO ALL DAY!! He has competed in several UIL events placing 2nd in the first rounds and in the champion round brought home a 4th and 5th place. UIL is competing in educational challenges. Each event required after school practice. The days he didn't have that he had golf practice and lets not forget DI practice too! And he still enjoys going to youth group each Wednesday so we try our hardest to get him there for that! Basketball games are every Thursday night and on the weekends he either has BB, UIL, DI, or taking the ACT. So his months have been jammed full of activities! Basketball ends next week. Golf tourneys start the end of March and I think I heard him mutter trying out for track last night. I told him anything that does NOT require me to leave this house before 7 AM!!! :) He is doing wonderful keeping an all A avg in the midst of all that too! He is a really great kid...starting to test the teenage waters but still a good kid!

Little Red- Will always be our little red! Has she not tested us since day one?? She is growing up fast and keeping me on my toes! She too is busy busy! She also competed in UIL getting 4th place. Being student body pres keeps her going too! At least early to school for her is 7:15!! She is on a DI team too so she has been busy with practices. She attended Mid Winter for the first time in Jan at the camp she attends during the summer! She is doing wonderful in school too keeping an A/B avg!! She is our little social butterfly!!

Squeakie- She is growing up and takes it all in! She has not gotten to that crazy busy age yet that will start next year! :) She is loving the 3rd grade and her teacher this year. Her teacher was raised in Germany so she brings a lot of German education into her classroom and Squeaks LOVES it. She already wants to be in German club next year. This teacher also is teaching them watercolors so she comes home frequently w/ her water painting and does quite well at it! She also is making wonderful grades and the honor roll this year!

Cani Bear- Oh Cani Bear!!! His teacher LOVES him! She could not write anything more wonderful on his report cards! He got to read to the principal a couple weeks ago (the first in his class) and the first one in kinder to read her a chapter book! He still keeps us laughing most of the time! He doesn't miss a thing and seriously has a wit about him (not always appropriate but funny. It will be interesting to see how he ends the year!

Sue Bee- OK I've had 4 prior children and seen a lot of kids during their toddler years. I fully prepared myself for the trying three's.... no need! I swear this is the SWEETEST most kind hearted little girl anyone will ever meet! She is the first to always say Happy Birthday and want to do things for others.It is always "yes momma" "oh yes mam" em "no thank you" (although at times that is when I say pick up your toys). She will eat her lunch, put her plate in the trash and go straight to lay down for nap rarely having to be told even once! She truly melts my heart everyday! She LOVES her baby sister and is SO excited about ICKY (that's what she named baby) in my tummy!! She is begging for a pig. She has a stuffed pig a farm pig a pig book she is in love with pigs! We hope to find her a pot bellied pig as a pet soon!

Last but not least is K baby- She has turned into a little chatter box in the past month. She adds new words and phrases to her vocab everyday! It crosses my mind often during the day that these two little girls are at the best ages of all! At 18mo she is really starting to bloom into her own little person. Watching her personality come out is so much fun...difficult at times but fun! She likes to explore and that can be a challenge. watching she and Sue Bee is so much fun. I hope they stay close like they are now forever. They will just lay down cuddle together and look at books watch TV or take a nap. It is so very sweet. Quite funny though she has now started mocking her sister and sucks the same finger as her now (she NEVER sucked her finger until last month) It will be fun to watch her over the next 6mo turn into a little toddler!

Yeh I know its been a while.....

What a wild couple months it has been! First to prepare and celebrate the holidays WHEW always busy around here!! But it was one of our most enjoyable Christmas celebrations in a long time! The kids enjoyed staying home and getting to visit with their grandparents and family and getting to play with their toys all day long!! Once Christmas ended it seems it took the 2nd week of the holidays to recover.

Then the new year began and it was back to school. And a birthday was celebrated by the OLDEST member of our family! It was wonderful to give him 7 flowers on the 7th to celebrate his 37th birthday and that we'd be welcoming lucky blessing #7 by the end of the year! No big surprise but he was quite excited to find out for his birthday I do believe!

By the next week it was show time...youth show that is! Big C placed 13th in his class and the top 13 went on to auction so he just barely got in! Little red got first place in her bake good (everybody says she's a little like her mother) :) So she too got to auction. Poor squeaks had her first year showing a goat and just struggled she did great but its a tough task for a 9 yr old! She did not place. After a lot of hard work I think it was decided to take a break from goats until the economy improves. By the time you buy the animal feed the animal it just isn't paying off right now! So we may have a lot of baking going on next year!

During that time Patrick also had strep throat. By the next week I got knocked on my rear with the flu. I seriously thought death was near me at one point. It may not have defeated me as well if I was not pregnant but pregnancy and flu just don't mix! It took me about 3 weeks to feel human again. Probably if I had sick days in my job and could actually take a day or 2 off I would have recovered a little quicker. But as most mothers know that's not how life goes and we still get up and tackle the day head on no matter what! So yippie finally getting back to life myself....Oh if it would all go so smoothly! Within days the stomach bug took up residency in our house! Not 1, not 2, not even 3 but 6 of the 8 family members caught the bug. My dearest husband not once but twice!! (and any wife knows that's twice as bad as a kid having it):) I laughed one day remembering how I thought the stomach bug w/ 4 kids was horrible...how times change. So morning sickness and caring for stomach bug victims is always a great combo!!

SO that brings us to this week almost 5 full days of a home of everybody being well for the first time in almost 2 months!! KNOCK ON WOOD!!! I should buy stock in Clorox and Lysol!! It is now being debated that we will just remove the months of Jan and Feb from our lives because it always seems to be trying months for us!

In the midst of the bug I also got to celebrate my 33rd birthday!! I got 7 beautiful Tulips from my wonderful husband!!

So for those thinking I fell off the face of the earth....close but not quite!! I always try to remember - things could always be worse - and God will never give me more than we can handle!!

Oh my- seriously only 4 more days till Christmas....

Gee whiz what a busy, fun month! Photo sessions galore yippie- christmas tree chopping-confirmation-winter dances- basketball try outs- and 13 yr anv oh my!!

I had a wonderful holiday season my first Christmas in business! I was a little nervous but it all went really well! I am loving my job and having so much fun!!

Big C was confirmed on the 7th. It was the most beautiful confirmation I've ever been to-and the longest!! He tried out for BB and made the team!

The little girls gave quite a show during the Christmas program at church. But as I see it lambs are suppose to roll on the ground and make lots of noice!

Our family tradition has been to chop down our tree! So this year was no different! It was so sad to see how no rain hurt the crop. But we left with the "perfect" tree! Why is it that the "perfect" tree never fits in our stand!

P and I celebrated our 13th wedding anv this past Tuesday! I can not believe I have dated/been engaged or married to the greatest man in the world for almost half my life! :0 How lucky am I....

Today we finally got to go see Santa! Luckily none of the kids pulled any surprise requests on us!