Last week

Well, I think I am back. I really want to get back on track with the blog, but things have been busy. We just got back from a week in Houston where we had a fantastic time with great friends. These friends are really more like family. We didn't do anything really special. Just hung out and cooked and ate and cleaned, stayed up late and then woke up the next morning to do it all again lol The kids had a blast. Most times there were at least 16 kids in or around the house. My 7, 5 of Melinda's 7, Austin's girlfriend and her brother and sister and the little boy from across the street LOL The older ones spent most of their time playing airsoft gun wars. I know, that sounds kind of violent, but they really had a great time and it kept them outside and getting exercise. The little ones pretty much stayed on the trampoline. They even played with Playdoh while on the trampoline. I think the Meyers will have Playdoh stuck in their grass well into the summer. We had a big get together with 3 other families for New Years Eve. Our friend Thomas made a fabulous Creole Gumbo, plus pototo salad, guacomole, and lots of dessert. There was a bon fire and fireworks and everyone stayed up WAY too late. Melinda, John and the kids even dissected a bobcat! Poor thing was hit by the gates before you enter their neighborhood. They froze it and saved it for when we came lol I couldn't stomach it, but it was a great biology lesson for the kids. I will spare y'all the pictures ; ) We even celebrated Ava's 3rd birthday while we were there. I cannot believe my baby is already 3!

I took LOTS of pictures, here are a few.

Samuel, Ava and Abby jumping on the trampoline.

Austin and Alexa shooting at each other LOL




Chad and I making the potato salad for the Gumbo New Year's Eve. Of course, Chad is making a funny face lol

Charlee, Ava and Sam with the neighbor's cat hanging out by the fire ring.

Abby, Samuel, Charlee and Ava posing for me on the trampoline.

Singing Happy Birthday to Ava

Melinda, John, Chad and me before going on a date to the movies. We saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Great movie, even though it made me cry. I couldn't STOP crying, even after the movie was over lol I don't usually get that emotional, but that movie was really moving. Oh, and Brad Pitt was gorgeous, of course ; )

Chad and John decided to build a deck over John's pond. Here they are working hard lol The deck came out great. John stocked the pond a year ago, so the men and kids have a great time fishing.

Austin and his first girlfriend, Amanda. Amanda is best friends with John and Melinda's daughter, Alexa. They have known each other for years, but something clicked the last time we were in Houston. You can see by the look on Austin's face how smitten he is LOL Oh my, they grow up SO FAST!

Sorry I bombarded y'all with a weeks worth of posts in one, but I wanted to catch up LOL

Merry Christmas to all....

I am so not good at blogging during the holidays. I did finish all 5 pairs of pajamas. Chad helped me finish the bottoms today. He was on the serger and I was on the sewing machine. We got them done in a couple of hours. I also finished Samuel and Ava's aprons, but the rest of the gifts are no shows. Ava will get her Wee Wonderful doll for her birthday January 2nd. Poor thing is still bald and faceless LOL I don't know why I do this to myself every year. I know I will never get it all done. It is 10 pm and we still have all of our gift wrapping to do. Chad just finished baking a New York Cheesecake and stuffing and marinating a rump roast for lunch tomorrow. YUM! Have I said how thankful I am for a husband that likes to cook?! Anyway, here are some pics of the kids in the pjs. The boys got Target pajama bottoms, they just don't appreciate hand made. Oh, and I forgot to get them t shirts, which is why they are topless in the pictures. They are trying to make me feel bad for forgetting, I don't : p

I am just posting the whole series, they are goofballs. After these pictures, we went riding around looking at Christmas lights. This is a yearly tradition. It was great for about an hour and then they all started fighting and needing to pee, etc. I keep reminding myself, I WILL remember these times fondly one day......lol





Merry Christmas everyone, I hope y'all have a wonderful and blessed day!

Christmas sewing

I have been making these little birdie's from Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts. Three of them are gifts for an ornament exchange breakfast tomorrow morning. I think I may make some more, they are addictive : )



I also whipped up a goody for my bff Jessica for her birthday. I made her this set last year and still had some of the material, so figured she could use some pot holders to match.

SNOW!

I know all of you Northerners are thinking *so what?* . But down here in South Louisiana, this is a really big deal! The last time I remember snow that stuck to the ground was when I was in high school! Either 1988 or 1989 ( yeah, I'm old). Austin woke us up before 6am and the snow was coming down hard! They were all dressed and outside playing in it long before the sun came up. We took over 100 pictures, here are a few of them.




How cool to have gotten snow at Christmastime. I told the kids to enjoy it because it will probably be another 20 years before we see it again. They were big, pretty, fat snowflakes too! Honest to goodness SNOW!!!!!


Ava and Sam thought it was great until their hands got cold. We don't have cold weather gear, it never gets that cold here.



Sam making a snow angel


4 snowmen, they have since made 5 more, so there is one for each of us LOL this is all in my neighbors' yard. There are too many trees for the snow to accumulate in ours. They are good neighbors : )

Samuel Isaac Richard

At 5:40 this morning, my baby boy turned 5 years old! I can't believe he is already 5?! It just doesn't seem possible. It was a long road to have him. It took 2 years to get pregnant for him and I lost 2 babies along the way. In the beginning of his pregnancy, I bled heavily, I was sure I would lose him too. However, God had other plans and after this initial bleeding, my pregnancy proceeded without incident. It was funny when people would ask if he was a surprise (being child #6) and I would tell them how hard I tried for him. His birth was my most difficult. I have birthed 5 of my 7 children without pain meds and I have never felt pain like I did for him. I actually thought I wouldn't make it to the hospital, because my contractions started off at only 2 minutes a part and very hard. Unfortunately, his labor proceeded somewhat slowly and only got more intense. He was my second epidural LOL I hadn't had one since Austin, my first child. Nobody believed or listened to me when I asked for it, I had to scream that I was serious and they had better get that anesthesiologist in here NOW! Of course, an hour after the epidural, he arrived with no problems. He weighed 9 lbs. 8oz., my second biggest baby. He was beautiful! I felt so blessed that I was able to have him after trying so hard. He was the sweetest little baby, very fat and happy : ) He was spoiled from day one, I don't think he was ever really put down. His brothers and sisters were so excited to finally have him home.

He is still a very sweet boy, very funny and full of personality. This morning when he woke up he was crying. I asked him why and he asked why he wasn't big like Daddy? Apparently he thought that he would magically wake up an adult on his 5th birthday. He would ask me every day if he was going to be a big boy on his birthday, I guess he didn't quite understand LOLOL

I just love his big curly bozo hair ( I know, it is time for another haircut lol) and his big brown eyes. He loves his cat Zoey and his little sister, Ava. When he was little he was extremely attached to me. We would joke that he would crawl back in if he could LOL When Ava was born, I always had two babies in my lap. He wasn't mean or jealous, he just wanted to be by me too.

Happy Birthday my sweet boy, Mama loves you very much!

Here he is *jumping* off the windowsill in his brother's room onto the bed. He is ALL boy! LOL His big brothers took this picture, I wasn't aware he was doing this until I downloaded the picture : /

Christmas is here!

We started decorating the house for Christmas on Sunday night. The girls were begging, but I had told them no because I still had to clean my house from the holidays. I didn't want to make a mess on top of another mess. And I was sorta tired lol While dh and I watched a movie in our room, they were busy. They surprised us by cleaning the whole front of the house spotless : D Of course, there WAS an ulterior motive, to decorate the tree, but how could I tell them no. We found an old fashioned Christmas station on XM radio and started doing the tree. I love all of the old holiday music. Like Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby and Elvis. It is what I grew up listening to, and it brings back fond memories. When I was a child, we had 4 big records that we would listen to continuously on a big cabinet record/8track player lol Anyone else remember those? They were the top of the line electronic equipment in the 70's lololol

This is our Nativity that we set up every year. I think this is the childrens' favorite decoration. This is the current configuration, it will change several times throughout the day. They love to move all of the figurines around : ) I remember playing with the Nativity under our tree when I was little. Baby Jesus was stuck in his manger on a nail : O I almost lost him a few times. I find it funny how my children love to do the same thing.



This morning I caught Samuel and Ava playing *store* with their play kitchen. Sam had turned the sink around to make it a service counter. I am not quite sure how sitting on top of the stove fits into playing store though ; )


They even took turns playing the salesperson.

Catching up

It has been a crazy busy week and a half over here. This is my first day to really be able to sit at the computer. It started the weekend before Thanksgiving. My best friend, Melinda, and her family came for the weekend. She has 7 kids too, so we definitely had a houseful. Just so you know how obsessed my friends and I are about Twilight. This trip was specifically planned so that Melinda could attend the movie on opening day with all of us LOL We were the thirty something moms in the theater sighing. We controlled the screaming, I mean, we ARE adults ; D I know the movie didn't get great reviews, but I really liked it. I wasn't expecting it to be as good as the book, so I didn't have that expectation. I saw it again Sunday night, yes that is twice, I NEVER see movies more than once at the theater. I enjoyed it even more the second time. I am trying to find time to see it a third time : O LOL

Anyway, my friends left Sunday and Tuesday my SIL and her 5 children arrived for Thanksgiving. My brother is a Major in the Air Force and is stationed in Africa until March. We had a lovely and lively Thanksgiving and were up at 4am on Black Friday to shop till we dropped lol Dh and I adore Black Friday, we get a lot of our Christmas shopping done and usually pick up a gift for us. Last year I got a new camera, this year was a Dirt Devil broom vac. I know, I am very easy to please lol Chad usually buys tools of some sort. I always go to Joanns too. Almost everything in the store is half off, plus you get an extra 20% off of your entire purchase. And the snuggle flannel is on sale for 1.50 a yard this year. It used to be a $1 a yard. I use this to make the children's Christmas pajamas.

The last few days we have been dealing with two sick little ones. Samuel and Ava have a wicked cough. And I have been suffering with a lovely bladder infection : ( Ugh! This is the second one in 3 months. Before this, I think I had 2 in my entire life. I don't know what the deal is, but it needs to stop!

Oh, and Chad and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary yesterday! He took off work and we went out for a Thai food buffet and then shopping at Old Navy. It was a nice quiet day. I cannot believe we have been married for 18 years, it only seems like maybe 10. I got married when I was only 19 and although they say teenage marriages never make it, we did! I have never regretted for one minute marrying Chad. He is a loving, caring , giving and funny man and a wonderful father. I pray we have 60+ years together.

I hope all of you are well and had a lovely Thanksgiving! I look forward to catching up on everyones' blogs : D