Randomness

Here are some random snipits from the past week or so at our house..I don't have enough time to blog about each one individually...

1. IT HAS BEGUN...You know how little girls eventually begin having some "opinions" on what they wear? Yesterday I was getting the girls ready to go to a thing at Bryce's school. I put a dress on Kynden and opened the shoe drawer and pulled out a pair of sandals. Kynden freaked out and when I handed her a shoe to play with while I put the other one on, she freaked out even more and threw the shoe at me. So I got her down off the changing table, opened up the shoe drawer. She immediately calmed down as she pulled out 2 tennis shoes. She then happily let me put those on her feet. Great. Now not only does she have an opinion, but she doesn't have good taste.

2. This month of May has been really busy for us. If you were to look at our calendar on the refridgerator, you would see it pretty full and not everything is even on there. I don't really like being busy. It seems to screw up family life/routines.

3. Speaking of family life/routines, Josh and I were able to go away without the kids over Memorial Day weekend. We had a lot of fun. We went to a "cabin" (aka: pretty nice house) in La Pine with two other couples as well as 2, 16 year old boys (son + friend of one of the couples). We left Friday and came home on Monday. Like I said, we had fun..but I'm still trying to decide if all the time, stress, effort, money and disruption to the family routine was worth getting away for a few days. It seems that I'm still paying for it due to very grumpy girls who's schedule is off....However, we very much appreciate Josh's mom for taking the bulk of watching all our kids for most of the weekend. It's a big job!


4. Last week as I was running around, busy getting stuff done in order to leave for the weekend, I turned on Pandora.com for some music. The song Agnus Dei came on and some of the lyrics are: alleluia, alleluia, For the lord God almighty reigns, etc..for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, it's a very pretty worshipful song..anyway, I turn around and there in the living room, with no one around her is Adelynn. The extraordinary thing about this was that she was standing perfectly still (which for a 21 month old is unusual), both of her chubby little arms were straight up in the air and her head was bobbing up and down. I immediately got tears in my eyes because I felt something powerfully spiritual in that moment...How would a 21 month old know to put her hands up in the air? And even if she'd seen it before, how would she have known that that was a song to worship? My own theory (and if you don't like it, you don't have to read my blog.=) is that it wasn't Adelynn the 21 month old..it was her spirit, who just for a moment, was overcome by the need to worship God. What a beautiful, precious gift to me!

4.5. My tattoo is healing up nicely. I've decided I really like having a tattoo. I'm also proud of the fact that it hurt so bad. It kind of represents the pain that we so often have to walk through in life in order to have something beautiful on the other side. By the time I got my tattoo, Josh was totally on board with me getting it..but still I could feel the tiny bit of his hesitation about it and not knowing if he was going to like it..but since I've gotten it, every now and again he'll just walk up behind me and pick up my shirt so he can look at it. He also shows it to people for me...I think it's safe to say that he likes it.

5. I just found out last night that next week is Bryce's last week of school..I thought I had 2 more weeks. I am scared.

6. Last night we had Jay and Allison over for dinner. Along with Macy and Ava of course. I intended to BBQ pepper steaks..but was informed that the propane had finally run out on the BBQ..dang. I just knew that was going to happen when we had company over! I had to fry the steaks instead. I was really worried about ruining them..but I guess it's hard to ruin White's pepper steaks, because they turned out fine. We had a good time. Macy and Jayden played really well together and I was able to pry Ava out of Allison's arms for the last few minutes before they left..she's cute! I miss babies. *sniff*

7. I'm finishing up this blog on Saturday morning and very soon our busy weekend is about to begin..photoshoot, errands, babyshower/bbq at my mom's, etc, etc..did I mention that I don't like being busy?

Big Birthday "Surprise"

So without any further delay, I will finally blog about my big birthday present! Most of the blog will be in pictures because they of course speak more than a thousand words! My big birthday present this year was....a tattoo! I've been wanting a tattoo for probably about 10 years or more and tonight I finally got one! All day today I have been going back and fourth between being way excited and then going over to the verge of nausea because I was so nervous. On the way to the tattoo shop, I came close to having to have Josh pull over because I thought I might throw up..anyway, I digress.

Here is a pic of the outline.

Here is me, getting ready..I'm smiling which means it was before she started. And yes, I chopped my hair.

Here is the first few strokes..not sure if it's painful or just uncomfortable...

Okay..it's painful. Actually, it hurt like HELL!

Here is the final result. Eventually, the center of the flowers will be white..but when the skin underneath is red, you can't really see the white. The bottom two flowers symbolize Josh and I..the two flowers on the top branch symbolize Bryce and Jayden, and of course the three flowers towards the tip symbolize the girls. The branch is an orange blossom branch. Orange blossoms represent, eternal love, fruitfulness, marriage, wisdom and innocence. And then added to it of course is my life verse of Galations 6:9. I totally love it! I'm looking forward to seeing what it looks like when it totally heals!

Final hint

Tomorrow I am going to be getting my "big" birthday present. I will blog about it soon..along with telling all about Josh and my weekend away. However, before I blog about what my big present is..I wanted to leave you all with one final hint.

Galations 6:9
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

This is my life verse and my final hint as to what my present is going to be. Any thoughts?

The most important decision

Last night after the girls were in bed and Bryce had fallen asleep early because of a headache, Josh and I headed outside where the evening was beginning to become cool. Jayden was outside with us. We all played in the sprinkler for a while and then we ended up all together sprawled out on the hammock..trying not to touch each other because it was still so hot. As we all laid there together we started talking about life. This led to a conversation that we've had several times with Jayden about God and about heaven. We've talked to Jayden several times about "asking Jesus into your heart" but he's always said that it scares him..I think he gets hung up on that phrase and what it means to have someone in your heart even though I've tried to help him understand what that means. Not a very good "Christain-ese" term if you ask me.. he's a very literal child! But there must have been something "magical" about the time last night because all of a sudden you could see the change in Jayden's face and then understanding. And he made the important decision to follow Jesus last night. What a wonderful thing this is to be a part of the most important moment in your child's life. Way to go, Jayden, I am so proud of you!

God I pray that you would keep my son Jayden in your arms and protect him as he grows. Help him to learn more about You as he matures and give us the wisdom to be parents that will not only teach him about You, but also be strong examples of what it means to follow You and love You with all of our hearts. Thank you for the blessing of each and every one of my children. Really, they're Your children..but thank you for the trials and joys and responsibility of being able to borrow them for a while.

A hint

I know, most of you who read my blog have been waiting on pins and needles for what my "big" birthday present is going to be. Well, you still have to wait 2 weeks..but since you insisted (I'm just kidding..no one insisted. No one asked. Potentially no one even knows what I'm talking about.) I will leave you with this hint...

Intrigued?

A great day.

For all of you that do not know, or maybe have forgotten, yesterday, May 8 was my birthday. As has become my tradition over the last 4-5 years, Josh took the day off work in order to be with me all day. We had a day of babysitting and basically for one whole day I got to be selfish. Well, there are lots of other time throughout the year that I'm selfish, if I'm honest, but my birthday is the day when I can do it and not feel guilty about it.

So yesterday Josh and I left the house in the morning and went out to breakfast. I love going out to breakfast. It's my favorite thing! Well, favorite meal to go out to anyway and the one that's done the least often. After having breakfast, we started the rest of the day. As some, if not most of you may know, I LOVE to get really good deals on stuff. I love shopping at thrift stores, finding things that are super cheap and making them my own by either painting them or fixing them or whatever. Anyway, the first place we went to yesterday was the goodwill distribution center. That's where you can go and buy things by the pound. After goodwill we went to some antique stores..which is another thing that I love to do. I have to give Josh credit..he was the one who found the antique stores and he found one of the best antique stores I've ever been in! I don't remember what it was called, but it's in Sellwood, which is a very cute area by the way. After the antique stores we headed over to 23rd in Portland, both to have lunch and also to visit Pottery Barn because I've had a gift certificate that I've had for a year and never spent because I never go to Pottery Barn and it's so hard for me to buy things there because it's so expensive. I mean, I love it..I love the style of the things there and I'm sure it's good quality..but it's so hard to justify spending $34 for a medium sized basket...But I did find something to buy with my gift certificate, so I did fine. We also had sushi for lunch and I tried something new and it was fabulous!

After lunch (which was late) and Pottery Barn we were having a little bit of a hard time trying to decide what to do. We thought about going to a movie, but there was nothing playing that I was interested in. So we ended up going to...where else? Ikea! We spent about an hour or so walking around Ikea, looking at the kitchen that I want to put in our house and getting some ideas for other things and then we headed home. The only downside to the day for me was that my back and butt were still really sore from my fall down the stairs the day before. (See previous post.)

All in all it was a great day for me..maybe boring for a lot of you, but great for me. However..the "big" part of my birthday present isn't going to come for a few days..so stay on pins and needles for me to blog about that.

Today I said a swear word...

As I have mentioned before (actually in my earlier post from today) the girls are confined only to the main living areas during most of the day..however, when it's nap time, it's a lot easier to take down a gate than it is to carry three 25 pound girls over the top..so I usually take one down as I tell them to all go get on their beds. So one of the gates was down late this afternoon when I let them out of their room after they woke up.

It was just 10-15 minutes or so before Josh got home when I realized that the gate was down and Ellyanna had disappeared. So I went in search of her. I found her playing in my shower. I told her to come out and then I went upstairs for something and she followed me. So as I headed down the stairs I picked up Ellyanna to take her with me. As I stepped on the second stair, what I didn't realize is that Bryce had taken off his shoes and left them sitting on the stairs (another reason to make sure to enforce the no kids in our bedroom rule). I happened to step right on the discarded shoe and of course it rolled underneath my foot. I completely lost my balance. So grasping Ellyanna in my left hand, and frantically holding on to the hand rail with my right hand, I tried to keep from hitting the stair while also keeping Ellyanna safe. I did not succeed. At least with the first part of my goal. I fell hard and hit about three of the stair edges..while holding a 25 pound baby, may I add. Needless to say, it hurt. Bad. I was writhing in pain for a few minutes. And then, out came the swear word. Now, I'm not a big swearer as most of you know. In fact as I remember it, in Jr High school, I remember trying out a particular swear word and my friend whom I was with (do you remember this Karyn?) just totally laughed at me because it sounded so weird coming from me. And to my knowledge that was the only time I have ever used a swear word. Apart from being funny or something. To be completely honest, I actually swear a lot in my head. a LOT. But never do I let them come out. Anyway, as I was standing there on the stair writhing in pain. I felt like swearing and I did. Not because it slipped out, but because it was a swearing moment. And it helped.

By the way, Ellyanna was not harmed in the making of this blog.

I was on a roll...

I was on a roll with my blogging last week..I think it was the most blogs I've ever done in a single week. And then I stopped. But it hasn't been a full week yet since I last blogged, so I think I'm okay. [Literally the moment I started typing Adelynn started screaming from the other room and came over here to me, still crying. Of course the other two followed her- adding to her torture. So now I'm sitting here with Kynden balancing on the footstool and hanging on to my chair, Ellyanna was screaming a minute ago, because I picked up Adelynn and not her,but is now on my other side pacifying herself with milk and Adelynn is sitting in my lap. Just thought you'd like to know!]

Yesterday turned into a very busy day for me. I hadn't really planned it that way, but that's the way it turned out. My goal for yesterday was to clean out the hallway. Not too hard of a job, you say? Well, you hadn't seen my hallway. Last weekend I had gone over to my mom's house and picked up 3 twin mattresses and exchanged our extra full sized bed for her twins. I figured that it was time. Anyway, the transition that followed was huge! Since bringing home the beds, I have rearranged their room 3 times trying to figure out best how to have 3 beds in there without it looking too much like and orphanage, cleaned out their closet and re-arranged all the clothes since I ended up having to put a dresser in there, cleaned their room about 102 times, went through all of their toys, keeping only ones that they actually played with, hung new curtains, re-arranged some of their belongings, painted the stripes on the wall that had been waiting about 6 months, painted and re-hung pictures in their room..uh, what am I forgetting? Anyway, you get the idea. Because of all this transitioning, the hallway outside of their room became very full of all the stuff that was being cleaned out. But on the other hand, I get the joy of blessing 4 people with all the stuff I cleaned out! My sister got a HUGE amount of clothes, towels, toys, etc that I had saved to pass on to her as well as stuff I had just cleaned out, Allison got some outgrown clothes for Ava, my mom got one of the playpens to keep at her house and my friend Heidi who is pregnant with her first baby girl will be getting another big bunch of stuff. How fun for me! So yesterday I cleaned the hallway..what I didn't realize was that in order to feel good about the hallway being clean I also was going to have to clean the girls' room again, the bathroom, and the boys' room as well as the living room which had been trashed the previous day by the girls getting into and dumping out several board games. Oh yeah, and I also did 352 loads of laundry. Whew! I'm getting tired again just reading about it! Is anyone still reading this?

But all the work has a huge payoff for me. It felt so good to wake up to a (mostly) clean house this morning. I get to think about how fun it is for my sister today to get all that stuff for Bailey especially since she barely had anything since she had the baby before the shower! And it was so nice to be able to get the girls dressed this morning without having to search for 10 minutes to find an entire outfit. Including the socks! Did I mention that I cleaned out their sock drawer yesterday too? I took everything out and dumped it out on the floor and they about had a fit! They LOVE socks! Funny girls.

The other great thing about doing all this work is that...IT'S GOING TO STAY DONE!. Thanks to my (albeit slow) genius of the baby gates, the girls aren't even allowed in their room unless it's time to sleep or get changed. They now are only allowed in the main living areas. So I can clean things (outside of the main living areas) and they stay that way for at least an hour. Such freedom! Not only that but I also get the benefit of a day-long ab workout for every time I step over a gate. Once I get the bed frames painted and installed I'll take a pic of their room. It's pretty cute if I do say so myself. And the great thing is that I haven't even spent any money. At least not yet. We still have to buy a third bed frame and mattress since we only get to keep 2 of the three from my mom. And I have to buy about a million cans of black spray paint to paint stuff..but that's it. Okay, now I'm just rambling...I'll go now.

Hilarious

We had some friends over last night and they showed us this video. It'a apparently some sort of public service thing about what to do if you've been attacked by 2 American men. There are so many weird things about this that I just had to share it!