Cookie Baking Personalities

The personalities of your kids are never more evident than when you do something all at the same time. Sage (9) was done with his owl mosaic in less than 2 minutes. I barely had enough time to get the camera from my bedroom. Julia was methodical & focused. Brody actually touched cookie dough for the first time in his life & spent at least 20 minutes constructing a pizza. The dough we used was bought from a school fundraiser from one of the neighbor kids & was the most beautiful, bright colored dough I've ever seen! It also makes baby's tongues & diapers very bright (hehehehe). Celeste would only eat the red dough. Corbin just loved rolling it out over & over with the rolling pins, which apparently I need more of because 2 is just not enough when you have 5 children. We had to share or get creative. I seem to remember using glasses or jelly jars at my gma's house as a child.

Corbin's duck (above) & his train (below, upper right). In the middle of the pan below is Sage's owl mosaic.

Julia was very proud of her faces on her hearts & flowers!

Outnumbered but not quieter!

While there are only 5 boy cousins, they will not be outnumbered in strength or noise! Donovan sat by his mama but was right in there when the guns popped out, the cars needed revving or girls needed chasing! We're gonna have to work on evening up that ratio! 5:9 will change to 5:10 when Daniel's daughter is born this spring!

My Christmas Angel

Here is my sweet little Christmas Angel!

Little Girls

The little girls has such fun together! Izzy is a little too old to play with them now. She is quite the young lady so Aunt Aubrey gave her lessons in hot glue gun usage & making her own cards.

Christmas at Aubrey's

We're choosing to remember the good parts (not the stomach flu we ended with). What a good looking group we are!

Loosing yourself in a book

I am forever greatful that God gave us imaginations & the ability to write it all down for others to enjoy. I am definitely one of those people who prefer books to tv or movies. I like nothing better than to sit down with a blanket surrounding me, a cup of tea or hot cocoa, & a good historical fiction book.  Of corse, I generally always have to watch for kids bumping me & spilling in their enthusiasm to snuggle. Loosing yourself in the life of another is a pleasure instilled in me by my parents & various teachers. No matter what is going on in your life right now, you can always retreat to a far off place where you know the ending will always be wonderful! My favorite ones right now are Amish fiction by Beverly Lewis. I highly recommend them!

Open up to the world

Today is a wierd day for me. I feel rather lonely & awfully melancholy. I miss my mom & sisters. I need to cut sugar out of my diet again. We're getting an inspection done on the farm we want to buy. The first part of the inspection was this morning and they should be finishing the second part right now, I think. Jeremy is with the man doing it & he said he is very thorough. I am the kind of person who gets very excited about something very quickly. I begin to dream of all the wonderful possibilites ahead. My husband is not. I lovingly call him my Eeyore. He looks for the dark cloud & keeps his feet firmly on the ground when it comes to everything. We are made for eachother. I help him to be excited & he helps me see reality for what it is. One of the things I don't like about myself is that I let small things steal my joy. For instance, my Jeremy called me to tell me just a few of the unfortunate things wrong with my dream farm & now the wind is out of my sails. I'm doubting whether or not we should make this deal even though I've seen God's hand in the entire process. We accepted an offer on our current home from the farm owner's daughter & family but it was for an amount lower than what we wanted so we have to save thousands of dollars before closing to make the money add up. We won't have any extra money for fixing up the things the inspector has already found wrong with the property as we're strapping ourselves just buying the property in order to accomplish this lifelong goal. We still love our current home & would love to just magically transport this house to the property we want. It's tough heading into the unknown when you get bogged down with the daily hardships you try to overlook... And then your sweet baby wakes from her nap, puts her tiny arms around your neck & calls you Mama, I love that name! Or your 3 yo runs up to you with his contagious smile to tell you the same secret he tells you everyday while holding my cheeks in his warm, sometimes sticky hands & I smile & I feel a little better.