Feeling Tired

I am officially tired today! It may have something to do with cleaning my entire house from top to bottom, packing and getting the house ready to be listed. I didn't realize just how much work I have accomplished until I sat back today while meeting with out realtor and looking around. Now the trick will be to maintain cleanliness with 4 kids running around. I think I am up for the task.

I am 8 weeks out now from baby girls arrival!! She is still insanely active and the boys love watching her move around. Mark can hardly wait until her birth which I find incredibly endearing. You would think by now that since we have through this whole "having a child" process, whether by birth or adoption, it would loose its newness. He is more excited than ever though. He said it doesn't matter what the gender is. Looking at the other kids and seeing how fast the time goes makes him excited to have a baby in the house again. I will remind him of that in a few months!

We are on track to move sometime in the next 2 weeks. I must admit it will feel nice to have this transition period behind us and be settled in our new home. Every time I go to the new place I love it more and more. It is so quiet there and peaceful. I feel very blessed that we have found this spot and will be able to call it home!

On another note I had to inform Judah the other night that marrying his first cousin is not an option. He was listing all his friends that happen to be girls that he may end up married to someday. Cassie and Riley made the list so I had to gently tell him that you cannot marry your cousin. He was not happy about it and said, "What!! Darn!! That stinks!!" So there you have it! We have curtailed any possible inbreeding within the family.

A Little Catch-Up

I am definitely going to be hit or miss over the next two weeks. I may feel inspired in the midst of the moving but if this past week is any indicator I will be fairly tired from all the cleaning, decluttering, packing and well you get the idea. I have been working very hard this week to remove everything that are not absolute musts so we can get the house on the market. I must say that I fell as though God has been very gracious and has sustained me as I have been working. I had been feeling pretty tired the past two weeks but this week have felt a renewed energy. The fatigue could have been due to a urinary tract infection (never had one in my life until now) but all is well again. The kids have been very cooperative and playing extremely well this week. It has been quite a stretch of time since they have entertained themselves this well without massive amounts of intervention on my part. Another reason why I feel God has been very involved in our lives this week. Not that He isn't everyday but there are times when I feel maybe more grace or maybe am just more aware of His presence.

The other thing that has been rather shocking to me is how much stuff we have removed from our house already. I don't think our kids have enormous amounts of toys or that we have lots of stuff. But...that is all relative. I am somewhat dismayed at how much we have that we don't need. We have had so much of our things packed away for weeks now, moved into the garage at the new house and we haven't missed any of it. I have already done quite a bit of purging but I can assure you I am purging even more after we are there and settling in. Do you know how much time is spent in a day just maintaining order in my house simply because of things? Too much time. I have been loving less clutter and enjoying my kids more. I think it is safe to say we can do without way more than we think we can. I guess our society, commercials, advertising and sale papers do a great job of convincing us we need everything they have to offer. And I kind of pride myself on not being a spender and I really am not. I hardly ever shop and am generally very content with what I have. Priding myself on not being a spender has come back and bitten me in the butt. When you have to spend money to try and organize your things and spend more money to buy storage solutions it kind of tells on you. Anyway, I have been challenged to try and downsize our things so that I can enjoy my family and my life a whole lot more instead of feeling stressed by the clutter and disorganization. Here is some Saturday morning sweetness for you. Mark had some weird hours again last week due to some little bits of snow. Normally he doesn't have to go out and do anything unless we have 2 inches or more. But since it wasn't getting above freezing his contracts wanted him to come clear things and put ice melt down. All that to say when Saturday morning rolled around I told the kids to let him sleep in a bit. I held them off until 8:30 and then this is what I found. Too cute for words.

And here is Eden in her classic silliness.

Anytime she finds a hat of any kind she comes running and wants to wear it. I love her little personality! She is now sitting next to me in the office sobbing with tears running down her cheeks because I won't let her touch the keyboard. So....I better run.

Here it is Thursday morning already and I am left wondering how another week has almost passed us by. Time just seems to move so much quicker lately and I haven't figured out why. I usually feel about a step behind on things but I am learning to relax anyway. A person can only do so much in a day.

A typical morning around here lately starts with Judah going outside to hunt with his new BB gun. He begged and begged for a 22 for his birthday but we told him he needed to be a bit older. But he did receive a stronger BB gun. It is now 8:40 am and he has been out hunting for an hour already. I will need to call him in soon for some breakfast and to get started on his schoolwork.

Shane, as always, is a tremendous help with the two younger ones. He seems to have so much patience with them. Everyday this week he has helped them completely tear apart the living room much to my dismay. It is already dismantled and I am learning it is futile to have them put things back together before dinnertime. This entails taking cushions off the couch, bringing pillows down from their beds, getting piles of blankets and making the living room completely impassable. They have lots of fun and I just have to take a deep breath before going near the room.

Tristan still loves his balloons although we are finally running out of them. I had bought a big bag (72 balloons) a few weeks ago and he has played and played with them. He likes to take a balloon with him sometimes when we go somewhere. A few weeks ago he took one with him to church - pink of course. He sat during church and would blow it up just a little and then let the air out again. That was before he learned how to pull the opening apart and make that horrible screeching sound. He still doesn't like when the balloons pop and now Mark start tormenting him yet again by popping his gum. Tristan heard him pop his gum last night and wondered what happened and Mark told him he popped his ear. Then Mark proceeded to go to Eden, Judah and Shane, pop his gum and tell him their ears were popped. Now Tristan is all worried about his ear being popped. I know it sounds cruel but it is absolutely hysterical!! Actually, while typing this Tristan just came to me and wondered if daddy popped his ear. Too cute!

And Eden.....she is as feisty as ever and loves to push the envelope. What's new, right? If we ever have a child who is compliant I think I will have to take them and have them checked out thoroughly. While there are times I wish I had a child who would be a little more compliant in the long run I am glad my kids have spunk, attitude and a flare for life. Just makes things more interesting some days! I couldn't resist these pictures. I had just taken Eden's pom-pom pony tails out and she decided to pull up a paint can and have a seat. Just too fitting with the little overalls.

Nice hair, huh?

And this picture here just shows why folding laundry with her awake can take twice or triple as long as normal. She cannot help herself no matter how many times I remove her from the laundry basket she climbs right back in and starts throwing all the laundry out. Disrupts my system and creates inner turmoil but isn't she cute?! I was kidding about the inner turmoil. If her climbing in the laundry basket created inner turmoil then I would hope one of you would come pick me up and cart me off to the doctor.

She is growing so much. She no longer looks like a baby and almost doesn't look like a toddler anyone. She is starting to look like a little girl and it is fun watching her change. She is a beautiful, beautiful little girl!!

I took the two older boys out last night for a little date. We had fun laughing at Shane farting in the middle of eating his ice cream. We came home and had a Mario Kart competition of which I failed miserably. The boys are always so encouraging and try to pick the easy courses for me since I am not very good. Now it is off to be productive - at least try to be productive. Although I am ready for spring the lazy snow that is falling today feels cozy to me somehow!

Is It Warm Enough??

I just looked outside and realized that Shane is out running around in shorts and a t-shirt. It is only 40 degrees outside!! Apparently I missed the memo that says it was warm enough for shorts!

Fun Times

This week we got to celebrate Judah's 8th birthday! I really do not know how we have arrived at 8 years old already but apparently we have! He was incredibly excited and of course was counting down the days. He wanted to decorate his own birthday cake which is very good since originally he wanted a red cardinal cake. He was trying to shoot a cardinal one day which horrified me so I told him to please not shoot the pretty birds.

He and Shane have quite the array of tattoo's on their arms - I know. They received some Narnia tattoo's in valentines cards and had to proceed with putting every last one on their arms and chest. Lovely!! We didn't do anything out of the ordinary on his birthday and he was really annoyed that he still had to do his school work.

Yesterday we took the kids to a a big indoor playground. They have been asking for weeks to go and we finally loaded them all up and went. I didn't last too long crawling through tunnels and going down slides. For some odd reason my stomach started feeling a little strained and sore. Could be that I am almost 30 weeks pregnant I guess. Here is Tristan hiding in the ball pit. He was scared at first but soon was buried underneath with only his little face peaking out.

Eden attempted to monopolize all her daddy's time and she did a good job at it. She is in love with her daddy and it is pretty safe to say the feeling is mutual.

The two older boys used Mark's shoulders to launch themselves into the ball pit.

Eden decided to hide under the balls. I loved this picture of her hands reaching out for her daddy to pull her out. The pit was deep enough that she had a hard time maneuvering by herself.

And here is her "I'm drowning" face.

Too cute for words! She is talking so much this week. Repeating everything including telling me I am a stinker. I cannot believe how quickly she is picking up on things and she seems wayyyy to smart for her own good. She walks around singing Twinkle, Twinkle and I guarantee it is one of the cutest things you ever heard. I had her to the doctor today and found out she has a double ear infection! Quite a bummer since she just had an ear infection a few weeks ago. She is happy and still as active as ever. She has been a bit congested for three days but my indicator from her was when she would sneeze she would fuss and pull at her ears. So...we start another round of antibiotics!

My little man being his usual sweet self.

And the "big" boys. I am always amazed by how much they include Tristan and Eden in their play. Tristan was one of the boys yesterday - they included him the whole time and would wait for him to catch up in the tunnel systems.

And lastly, one of my favorites from yesterday. Tristan peeking through the one tunnel. I am in love with this little child. I have always loved him but it took a while for me to be captivated by him. As I have written before he has not been an easy little boy but we have suddenly turned a corner and he brings such joy to my days!! And I am smitten!

And whoops! It seems I already have this picture but have another look.

Schoolwork

Judah just said, "I am so buggered with my new life." Translation: Learning cursive writing is such drudgery!

Oh.....the pain of childhood and having to focus for extended periods of time on completely useless schoolwork that will in no way have any impact on his future life. Unless of course he would decide to go into journalism which having no writing skills would then present a huge obstacle. I'm sure he is just thinking that cursive writing has no impact on hunting which is his mission in life right now.

Boys Are Officially Gross!

Upon reminding the two older boys tonight that they need to remember to change their underwear on a daily basis this is what I was told:

Shane informed me that he likes a dirty butt! It helps to activate farts!! Totally and completely gross in my book. I have decided that it is a loosing battle for me to ask them to leave the room when they have to pass gas. Apparently my horror and reaction is the best part of the whole deal. So I am devising a plan that includes possibly horrifying them with my own flatulence one of these days! What do you think?

Cutie Pie

Still not a whole lot new on the home front! I am still feeling incredibly lethargic. I have a check-up tomorrow and a round of blood work so if I would happen to be dealing with some low iron levels I'm sure it will show up. More likely it is from having my sleep interrupted at night and just hitting that stage of my pregnancy. Trying to stay upbeat though. Mark told me last night that he may tuck me in bed the same time we put the boys to bed.

Eden is hitting that stage of her childhood were you can tend to not enjoy them quite as much. You know......being a sassy pants, telling me no about everything, screaming and throwing herself on the floor when she doesn't get the response she wants....typical kid stuff. But it is just one fit after the next!! I am hoping that she works through this relatively quickly because I am finding myself feeling a little guilty. I worry more about her than I ever did the boys. I sometimes am afraid that she doesn't feel loved because of how much discipline she is receiving. And it isn't horrible discipline - sitting in her time-out, getting a snap on the leg, etc. She just doesn't like being told no but who does, right?

Last week when Mark's mom was leaving the two little ones found a hat that she had in her bag and had to take turns trying them on. Well.....Eden didn't want to share but.... Here is Tristan trying out the new look. I'm not sure how he will feel about this someday. At least it wasn't pink!

Like I said recently, Eden loves any hat and wants to wear them as soon as she happens upon one. Here she is after putting it on her head. She seems a little unsure of the fur.

This is her reaction when she is told she needs to give Tristan a turn.

And here she is after getting the hat back. Notice the little tears in both of her eyes? Pretty dramatic!! And now she is in the office with me taking her pants off yet again. She would live in her diaper and a shirt! I thought we would get past this since she is a girl. But apparently the desire to run around partially clothed or not clothed at all supersedes gender. It must be instinct!! If you happen to stop by unannounced you may think we are trying to train our children to be nudist - or at least partial nudist. That is not the case at all. Just letting them revel in their innocence!!

What We Have Been Up Too

Time just has a way of continuing to move right along without consulting me. Life has been busy and I decided to give you an update of what all has been transpiring in our lives - minus pictures for now. I do have some sweet ones of the younger two....maybe later.

The main thing holding my attention right now is getting things ready to move. It seems that is the rhetorical question right now. "When are you moving?" The answer is we don't have a date locked in yet. We really had thought by the end of January we would try to move but as the month progressed and Mark had so much snow removal we decided to relax with things and take it easy. And then we figured we would do some things to the house in the meantime. I went over to the house two weeks ago to wipe down walls and do some cleaning and found that all the walls were painted with flat paint!!! I was slightly dismayed since that means no little hand prints were coming off. So, we have been painting (mostly Mark) most of the house. Three bedrooms are finished and the living room is almost complete. We are waiting to paint the dining/kitchen area until we redo the kitchen. That should be happening sooner rather than later. Also, we decided to go ahead and have the basement basically done over. There was painted panelling (which wasn't horrible) but got an estimate for drywall and now the downstairs bedroom and large living area are torn apart. They will be starting the drywall sometime this week. All in all more work than we originally anticipated but we are thrilled to be getting everything done before we move in!!

My other reasons for not blogging as much are.....facebook and pregnancy. First of all, I don't spend tons of time on facebook but when I get a few minutes I check that first and sometimes get sucked into the vortex. I really love facebook!! And for the first time in this pregnancy I have been starting to feel tired. Just depleted of much needed energy. Some of that has to do with not sleeping as well and some of it has to do with working extra hard packing and getting ready to move. Plus, this little girl is one of the most active babies I have carried. Could get interesting around here in a few months!

Judah has been spending enormous amounts of time outside hunting and trying to kill an illusive squirrel. He wondered the other day if there is something you can put over your eyes that helps illuminate where the squirrels are. Basically like some kind of infrared night vision is what he was trying to describe. The fact that the squirrels seem to be hiding from him cause him great frustration. He did manage to shoot a bird yesterday so he was pretty happy until it went missing from our back porch. It seems like some other critter (probably a stray cat) came and helped themselves leaving only feathers behind.

Shane isn't really into hunting but he really is enjoying spending time in the snow and sledding. The cold doesn't seem to bother him at all and he will spend lots of time outside which helps. He plays with Tristan a lot too and loves going to the new house with his dad and getting pulled around behind the four-wheeler on his sled.

Tristan is still really obsessed with balloons! He tells strangers about all the different colored balloons he has popped - over and over. He has a one track mind.

Eden is growing like crazy. She had her well check and we found out she has gained 10 pounds and grown 5 inches since arriving home. She is getting really adept at telling me no for everything and it gets her in trouble.

We took the kids to see the Watoto Ugandan children's choir last night and were once again transported back to Africa. We got to sit in the front row and experience it without anything blocking our view. The children are beautiful, amazing and their stories were compelling. You can check them out at www.Watoto.com They are doing things right! If you get a chance to see them - go!! You won't be disappointed!