WOW!

Time has definitely been slipping away from me faster than I'd like! :)

Been busy! :) Chavalah's tubes were successful, however, straight from surgery we went to her pediatrician and found out she had pneumonia, so been busy with getting her well! She's doing much better now! So thankful!

Celebrated a big birthday yesterday in our home! Boy did we have a fun-filled day! We woke Ezra up by going into his room and singing Happy Birthday! :) Oma was here to do that with us. Then we all ate donuts (one of Ezra's favorite breakfast foods). I finished his birthday cake with the help of my mom. We had to do the letters for his cake. He was SO EXCITED about his Veggie Tales birthday cake! What a doll! :)

Ordered in pizza for lunch because that again is one of Ezra's favorite foods! :) Ate quick, then our birthday party guests started arriving! :) Just family, but guests nonetheless. We played outside for awhile then came in to cut the cake and open presents. Then played outside some more. Our guests left around 4. I started dinner, we grilled out, and then daddy started a fire. We all went outside to sit around the fire.

Daddy & Laine went on a Starbucks run for this tired mommy and turns out our Starbucks closes at 7!!!! WHAT!? SERIOUSLY!? Guess I've never wanted one this late here in Maricopa! :) My dear dear husband ran all the way into town (15 miles one way) to get me a Starbucks. He didn't want to come home empty handed! :) What a man! HE LOVES ME SO MUCH, I KNOW! :)

Daddy & Laine then camped out the rest of the night! Laine could hardly sleep he was so excited. Their lights went out at MIDNIGHT! :) They slept until 8 this morning! :) Came inside and both of them are sleeping again this morning right now as I type this! :)

Must go start lunch! :) Lots to get done today! Hoping to accomplish a lot of packing for the trip we leave on in 4 days! :) Yippee!! Iowa HERE WE COME! :)

Tubes

Well, Chavalah is scheduled to have tubes put in her ears tomorrow morning at 7AM. Not too sure she'll be leaving the surgery center with or without them at this point. She has been fighting something all weekend. I took her to the doctor on Wednesday PURPOSEFULLY for this, but at that time she didn't have anything to be treated for bacterial. It was viral! NOW, she's gotten worse just yesterday and has been running a consistent fever now for 48 hours. She is coughing a lot worse now and has some yucky stuff coming out her nose! Poor thing! We'll see what tomorrow brings! Please be praying for them to be able to do it tomorrow! I really want this done and off my mind. Too, we are flying in less than three weeks and that makes me nervous if we're unable to get the tubes in before the trip! Will post tomorrow after we're home.

Week thus far.........

...........has been different than I thought it would be! That doesn't mean it's all bad, just different than I had anticipated.

Not much to report. Taking the littles' to the pediatrician tomorrow. Both struggling with congestion, nose and not so good coughs. Today I took Ezra to gymnastics and didn't realize how bad his breathing had gotten. It's quite labored, and I'm anxious to see what his pulsox (sp) is tomorrow at the doctors' office. Poor guy! He has asthma, so it doesn't take him long to turn down like his daddy. He started running a fever yesterday. It has been quite low like 99ish, but still it's elevated and you and just tell he doesn't feel well.

In the meantime, I have started a new blog. This time it's filled with RECIPES. I will still maintain this one as much as I can with our family stuff, but in the past, I have had so many people asking for recipes I have prepared or even just talked about so, I decided I would just do a blog so that everyone could have access to my recipes and all the time. The blog address for that is: http://www.jojosnumnums.blogspot.com/. Go check it out! :)

Will check back again when I'm not taking care of my sick sweet babies.

Saturday

WOW! What a day and it's only 6PM! I was in bed at 2 this morning and up at 7 to go get our produce basket this morning. Decided not to go back to bed (even though the entire house was still sound asleep) and get some stuff done. Haven't stopped since! I LOVE IT! :) We have just and incredibly FUN, relaxed and non-committed Saturday full of lots of memories with the kids.

Kids have played outside nearly most of their "awake" hours! They are so lovable! Have I mentioned how much I am so grateful I have them in my life!? Oh man, not a second goes by that I take for granted what God has given me to nurture and care for! HE IS SO GOOD! Anyway, the kids played out back while daddy has been working on planting our spring garden! Mmm! 6 BEAUTIFUL tomato plants, I think some corn, green beans, pumpkins, broccoli, carrots, cucumbers, red potatoes! WOW! It will be so yummy! :) Gave the kids Popsicles to eat after they rested in their rooms this afternoon!

Been posting things on Craigs List all afternoon as I've been cleaning out our bedroom in hopes of getting it ready to paint and ready for a fresh new bedspread decor. Still no new bedroom furniture until after we've gotten some for Laine at least, but we're getting there. Just need to keep saving! :)

Need to run! Need to figure out dinner! :) Then give the kids baths, they are sticky and dirty, and put them to bed. Then keep going on my stuff. Oh yeah, did I mention that Laine and I completed 9 lessons in Language Arts!?

Here is a video of everyone from today! :) Enjoy! I tried posting pictures, but can't seem to get it to work with the video. Might post just the pictures next without verbiage! :) Probably do it tomorrow, need to be with my sweetie tonight.

Success

Well, it's been a busy few days, but many things accomplished.

First, today, we finally saw an ENT for Chavalah. She's been struggling with lots of ear infections and such, and it's time now to put those silly tubes in! I was THRILLED to hear you could do it so soon. We're scheduled for the morning of March 8, so that will be plenty of time before we leave for the wedding and we can fly without any trouble whatsoever in the ear department! :)

Also have been going through LOTS of stuff in the house and am gradually getting rid of some things. Some just the Goodwill, just dropped a huge tote of stuff of there this afternoon, and some by selling it on Craigs List! This is crazy nuts! Have you ever sold anything on Craigs List!? I'm having a BALL! Have already sold two items, gone, out of the house, cash in an envelope GONE, and I have something that has been spoken for and will be gone this coming week, I've listed several other things in hope to sell those, but is amazing! :) Stoked. Probably items I'd have thrown into the Goodwill box and already I've made a good chunk! GLAD I DIDN'T!

So, that's basically what's been going on! I'm still doing lots of organizing, going through and cleaning. Hopefully by the time we leave for Iowa, everything will have been gone through, organized again, and then when we come BACK from Iowa, I can start working on some more "home decor" projects that I've been holding off on.

Ready for another QUIET weekend. Not exactly sure how that happened two weeks in a row, but I'll take it. We will be getting a garden planted and some stuff moved around. See you in a few days.

Weekend of NOTHING

Mama & her babies! :) Pure bliss!

The boys playing outside in the 80 degree weather! :)

Well ALMOST! :) Wow, what a wonderful weekend! We did lots of loving on our cuties, playing outside, took walks, RESTED, watched movies, grilled out! Amazing weekend.

Friday, the kids and I went shopping in Casa Grande with my Granny, mom and dad! Had a FABULOUS time! The kids did great and I got some things I needed for the wedding and just in general! Only got through 1/4 of the stores, but did well, nonetheless! I even found a few darling summer dresses for CHEAP in a much smaller size than I'm used to buying! Have lost quite a bit of weight since January 1 and am excited about that! Let's just say I haven't shopped in a "normal size" shopping store in WAY TOO LONG! In fact, my hubby has barely seen me this small! :) Gotta love that! But it's about time! New year, new me! :) Time to get this nasty "baby weight" off that I gained with having 5 pregnancies within 4 years, then bad eating behaviours to support the grieving we went through! We're onto a new chapter of life with the sweetest family there is, and now it's time for a new mommy to go with that! :) No asking for pictures yet, you'll notice I haven't posted many of myself, probably the first you'll be getting is my sisters' wedding! :) So, don't be pestering me about that! :)

Anyway, then Saturday we stayed home ALL DAY! Didn't leave ONCE! Oh, how amazing that was. The kids played outside, we slept in, watched movies, and Ben got a little yard work done. Much needed! :) It's looking better! :)

Sunday we had a sweet baptism service of a friend of ours. Isaiah was baptized on Sunday at the sweet church that Laine attends AWANA at. It's one of his AWANA friends actually! PRAISE THE LORD FOR HIS PUBLIC PROFESSION! He's a sweet boy, and it just gives me hope and more reason to be praying for my own children! Went out to lunch (haven't done that in quite some time), then came home and did naps. Laine went to AWANA and Benjamin worked on tilling his garden! It looks so refreshing! Time of Spring is here. LOVE seeing that garden freshly tilled and ready for planting. He will plant gradually this week! Praying now for an abundance of produce! :)

Today we're back to the grind. SCHOOL, SCHOOL & MORE SCHOOL! :) Learned last Friday from our teacher what our percentages have to be and we have a lot of work cut out for us, but WE CAN DO IT! :) Thanks for checking in again!

Oh yes, one more thing! Thinking about starting a Recipe Blog! Would anyone be interested!? I just have so many people always asking for my recipes and I have a feeling a lot just don't ask. My only "condition" is that I have COMMENTS in the comment section of if you've tried, what you thought, any feedback, etc. I like an interactive blog! This one is not as interactive as I'd like, but I'll take what I can get! :) I'm still trying to figure out how I'd "organize" a blog. Any thoughts!? They'd be random.

Weather

I often question why we moved out to Arizona almost 4 years ago! And when I question, I just have to remind myself of the unbelievable weather we have 9 or so months out of the year! Truly! This week we've hit upper 70's and even low 80's! LOVE IT! Makes me happy, makes me want to CLEAN AND DECORATE this house like crazy and lots of other funny things! Like play with my kids outside for HOURS! The kids love me a lot more I think too! :) LOL!

Yesterday, daddy was home all day with us. Those are huge happy days in our home. Often in the morning when Benjamin is still home, I schedule the appointments I need to get done so I don't have to take all three kids with me everywhere. Nice, but not so nice when looking for more times to be together as a family. Thursdays we've pretty well committed to scheduling NOTHING purposefully so we can have a family day all to ourselves. LOVE THEM! After daddy left, the kids and I ran to Fry's to pick up some ingredients I needed for my latest "craze." Oh man, I seriously need some help! :) I'm in to Caesar salads now. Fresh Romaine Crunchy Lettuce, homemade dressing (to die for) and homemade croutons! Oh my goodness. SERIOUSLY! Anyway, so after we stopped at Fry's, I took the kids to our first "spring treat" of DQ! Oh were they happy! :) You should've seen the looks on their faces when we drove up to DQ! :) These are fun mommy moments! They sat and ate their ice cream with huge grins and with chocolate dripping down their faces, but they were in Heaven! How couldn't I just let it happen! :) We visited and laughed. Came home and put the littles down for naps, and did 11 lessons in Language Arts with Laine! Shew! He was a trooper! Finished our day out with watching the Olympics together, cozied up on the couches with blankets! :)

Have I mentioned, I'm so grateful God gave me the most AMAZING husband I could ever ask for, and the most perfectly CHOSEN three children I could ever ask for!? WOW! I'm speechless!

Today we again have our windows and doors open to the beautiful weather and sun, and are headed this afternoon to the Casa Grande Promenade (similar to an outlet mall) and then to dinner with daddy at work! YAY!