New year...already behind!

Emma at Five months

Hmmm….well, I’m already behind on one of my goals for the new year! L I wanted to write on the blog at least twice a month, and I only posted on blog entry for January. I have about 500 or more excuses why I didn’t get a second one written, but no one wants to hear about excuses! J

At the end of January, Chandler turned six; however, since he hasn’t had a birthday party yet, I’m having a hard time convincing him that he is already SIX! J We usually give our children a small party on the year that they turn five, but since we were traveling back from Alaska last year, Chandler didn’t have a birthday party. So, I told him we would have a birthday party, but between all the company we’ve had at our house, the cold weather, the activities of everything else…it just hasn’t happened yet! At this rate, it’ll be spring! J

Birthday boy!

Earlier this month, we had two more boys at our house for a week, while their parents went on vacation. It really wasn’t too bad, but I think Roger and Sarah Robertson are good with five kids! J If we learned nothing else in the past month, we learned this: Every parent has a different style of parenting, it doesn’t make one better than the other…it’s just different! So, now we’re back into the swing of our own routines and schedules…or rather, we’re working on it! J

My new haircut and Emma!

For Valentines Day, my husband completely surprised me! AGAIN! J I thought that we were going to the church valentines banquet, but Roger had arranged for my parents to keep the boys over night. He also asked his brother and sister-in-law to keep Emma for a couple of hours while we went out to dinner. I’ll admit…at first, I was very disappointed to not be going to the banquet; but Roger went through all the effort to line up babysitters and coordinate our time away so I got over it. However, Roger had more than just dinner up his sleeve! After dinner, we took a drive for a few minutes, and then Roger stopped at a very nice hotel. When I asked what we were doing, he just said, “Let’s see if they have a room available for tonight.” But, Roger already had a room key, a reserved room, a bouquet of roses and a beautiful note all set up to surprise me! He told me that he too, had wanted to go to the banquet, but since we could really only afford the overnight stay or the banquet, he chose the overnight stay. He really did an outstanding job working at surprising me, lining up babysitters, getting flowers, etc…I am loved! (We did go get Emma, as she refuses to stay overnight anywhere without her mama!) J We enjoyed talking uninterrupted, breakfast to ourselves, a quiet ride home, and came home refreshed and ready to parent five children again! J (Until they’re all five in the same room…then I can’t think!) J

Six months!!!

Travis has been working on his ABC’s , and he’ll be starting 4K in the fall. This past week, he pointed to the letter “U” and asked Roger, “What’s that?” Roger replied, “That’s ‘U’”. Travis promptly replied, “Me?” I just shook my head and laughed! While at times the days seem LONG, the years are flying by! We were looking at picture albums together a few days ago, and the boys have grown so much! I wish I would’ve enjoyed them more when they were 4,3,2, and 1, but at the time all I could think about was getting through the day! And in some ways, those days were easier…we were learning about simple obedience, not lying, etc. Now the questions are getting harder! One of our children asked at Bible time, what he should do when Satan talks to him and tells him to do something wrong…a deep thought for a little person! Now we’re wading through why we should obey, learning about God’s grace, living for Jesus, treating others kindly, and other thoughts the boys have on a daily basis. It does keep me begging God for grace and wisdom, and challenges me to seek His Word.

Our children...love them so much!

Emma's first time with cereal!

Roger is leaving this Wednesday for a trip to South Carolina. He’ll be flying the Pacer down there by himself in preparation for getting more flight training in the future. Please be in prayer for good weather, safe travel, direction for our future, and myself and the kids as Roger will be gone through Sunday. We are gingerly stepping out in faith to see what God has for us. While Roger enjoys his job, God has greatly been moving in Roger’s heart directing him to pursue more aviation training. Whether that means God will move us back to Alaska, we don’t know; but we wanted to be preparing for whatever God has. Please pray with us for God’s direction and wisdom. Thank-you!

Apparently, the cereal was good enough to lick the table!