A Surprise Shower!!!

Today was a normal day. We have a regular routine we go through on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The kids and I try to make sure that we get everything done and get all dressed for karate class.

Then Scott gets home, we share some highlights of our day. Then we all get in the car and head to karate class.

We got there in time for the kids to get most of kids class. I helped Elijah put a floor puzzle together and then our Sense I announced that kids' class was going to end a little early today. I didn't think much about it. But after they did their regular closing ceremony, suddenly cake and punch was brought into the room. I wondered whose birthday it was and then found out it was a baby shower for our baby. :-) I was so surprised.



I took a few pictures and had Scott take a couple of pictures of me holding the little outfits for the baby. 



Our Karate Family gave us this cute Pink Gi for Elisabeth.

We didn't get a picture of the cake before it got passed around but I did get pictures of everyone enjoying it. :-)




Hannah was my partner during adult class and I informed her that she had a green mustache from the icing. Oddly enough she didn't seem to mind. :-)





And the other amazing thing was that Scott knew about it for a week or so and didn't even let out a hint about it. That really surprised me! :-)



There was only one sad part, we also found out that a really nice young man was moving. But the reason, I mention this is that our Sensei led our class in prayer for that young man and his family.

I love how family oriented our dojo is and how we all feel like one big family. I also like how our instructor is very open about her faith in Christ and isn't afraid to show it. She even appointed Scott as our dojo chaplain. :-) You don't see that very often in a traditional dojo!

I just want to share one more picture from tonight of Hannah demonstrating a partner stretch that our class did. The partner was to push their backs until they said to stop.



Hannah is pretty proud of how flexible she is. :-) She can do the splits and then lay flat on the floor without any effort.

This was a later blog post this week. I had been trying to decide what subject I wanted to talk about before the week was over. I didn't realize that a subject would spring up on me like this.

Next week there is a lot going on. I won't have to have a surprise to give me something to post about.

(1 Corinthians 10:31) "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."

Our Three Day Weekend

After such a busy week, it was nice to enjoy a fun filled weekend.

Saturday, we started the morning with a really good workout during karate class. Then that evening the girls and I enjoyed going out to a Mother/Daughter tea party with friends in our homeschool group.



The girls enjoyed wearing pretty dresses. We were able to bring our own tea cups and enjoyed having fancy tea.
There was a nice area set up where we could have our pictures taken. One of the mothers brought her camera and took our pictures. Afterward I took a picture of Ruth and Hannah all dressed up in the pretty accessories that were there for the girls to wear.




They were so sweet wanting to take a picture together. One of the older girls present mentioned that during next years tea party they will have a little sister to add to their picture.

After the tea party, I took them to Walmart and bought them some hairbands.

While we girls were gone Scott and our sons made home made pizzas and watched a movie. Scott told me that my brother would be proud that after the movie, Scott showed the boys some YouTube footage of Michael Jordan.

Sunday, we had a good time at church and enjoyed visiting with our members after services.

Today, Scott was off for Martin Luther King Jr. day. We took the kids to a skate park where they could enjoy trying out their new skooters and skateboards. Elijah and I took pictures and videos of Scott and the kids trying out all sorts of half pipes and ramps.



We had a really good day. This week should be a little less busy than last week. Tomorrow, we will be back to the normal routine. It's good to take a break every once in a while and enjoy some time together as a family.

It's ....the moment you've all been waiting for!

Mommy's Chubby Cheeks

 It's been a good day! We went to my ultrasound appointment.  I had warned Hannah, last night, that the baby might not be what she wanted.  She told me that she was going to pray real hard that God make the baby a girl.  I told her that God can't change the gender of the baby over night.  She said, "God can!" She was positive.  So I had to change my way of explaining it because she is right, God can do whatever he wants.  So I tried again.

"God knew when this baby was first conceived in my tummy what he wanted this baby to be. So whether this baby is a boy or a girl, God has already decided and we'll be happy with whatever God wants. 

Profile (Daddy's nose?)

Hannah told me, "Well, I'm still going to pray that it's a baby sister." 

She said that she likes having Ruth as a big sister but that she wants a little sister too.  Ruth isn't any fun to dress up and she's tired of dressing up her brothers who are now too old to dress in girly stuff, at least while their big brother is on guard.

I told her that the best thing to pray for now is that the baby will cooperate for us and let us see whether it is a boy or a girl.

Arms Crossed (I think some kind of karate move.)

We arrived at the doctor's office and checked in.  They called me back promptly and the ultrasound was underway.  The ultrasound tech said that everything was measuring well. However you see how the arms are crossed in this picture? Well, the legs were equally crossed.  After she got all the baby's other measurements, we tried to see if we could get the baby to uncross it's legs.

Well, the baby was very modest and it took me turning over from one side to another about 3 or 4 times to finally get the baby to show the label.  

Little Feet

I told Hannah that this baby knew that she wanted to know so badly that it was teasing her. 

One thing that I was amazed at is how much jiggling my belly can take.  Now here I've been worrying about bumpy roads and not jarring too much when exercising.  The ultrasound tech kept jiggling my side and I'm like so that's okay? :-) I guess the baby is pretty well padded.

Anyway, I know that's not what y'all are all waiting to hear. "So get on with it already, Stacie! Was Hannah disappointed? Is she in her room crying right now?"

Hmmm... Maybe I should save the rest of the story for the next blog. 

Okay, Okay! God knew that Hannah would be praying for a sister and decided that he would go ahead and give her what she wanted.  We are expecting a happy healthy baby girl. We are blessed with children that know to pray for the things that are heavy on their hearts.  He didn't have to give her a sister but he was gracious enough to grant her request.  In about 20 more weeks we will get to welcome Elisabeth Rose into our home.

On our way home, I passed the kids back some food and Hannah wanted to say the prayer. I told her to go ahead and she thanked God for letting us have a safe trip, for the food that we are going to eat today, and for letting her have her baby sister.

God is so good!

James 1:2-6 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; (3) Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. (4) But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. (5) If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. (6) But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.

Busy, busy!

Last week was busy. Scott started back to work and the kids and I got back to our homeschool routine. Between Scott's car breaking down, us hitting a skunk on our way home from karate class, and then a long day on Friday between taking Scott to work, driving to my doctor's appointment, taking the kids to wal-mart and then standing for two hours at Keepers of the Faith, I was worn out by the time I got home.

Scott was such a dear to listen sympathetically to my day's frustrations. I know that all the work that I had on that one day is really nothing compared to the burden he bares daily to provide for me and our children. I am so blessed to have him!

Saturday, we had karate class that morning and afterwards we went to the grocery store and bought some groceries for this week.

Most of the groceries we bought were for the baby shower that I am giving for a church member that is also a friend in our homeschool group. I am hoping that I have a good attendance of the other mothers in our homeschool group as well. I have a tendency to go overboard on preparations and then I wind up very disappointed if no one comes.

This time I am trying to keep an open mind and have a backup plan if no one that was invited comes. I may do like the king in the Bible that calls people from the street to come to the banquet (check out Luke 14:16-24). Okay, maybe I won't go so far as to call strangers to eat with us. Maybe just call our children and husbands to join the party. I must say that is one advantage to having a large family, you always have party participants available.

Wednesday, I have an appointment for an ultrasound, where we hope to find out our baby's gender. The kids are hoping for a girl. Joshua and Ruth said that they wouldn't be disappointed if the baby did turn out to be a boy. Hannah however is determined that this baby has to be a girl. So for her sake, I'm glad that we are finding out early. That way she'll have time to adjust before the baby gets here.

Everyone seems to be curious about the names we've picked. If we have a boy, we plan to name him Joseph Harold. If the baby is a girl, we plan to name her Elisabeth Rose.

We have a pattern to naming our children. For their first names we choose a Bible name, and their middle names are all a family name or a slight variation thereof.

For instance Rose comes from one of Scott's grandmothers whose name was Rosa. The interesting part is that her full name was Rosa Elizabeth.

Even Joseph Harold has extra significance. Harold was not only my husband's grandfather's name, it is also the middle name of my childhood pastor that my father always called his father-in-the- ministry. His first name was Joseph, although he went by Harold.
We would call ours Joseph.

Well, I better quit blogging about my upcoming week and get busy living it. :-) I have a lot to do before I'm finished being ready for the shower. I better get busy.

The Beginning of 2012

Happy New Year! For my first post this year, I wanted to share some pictures of some of the things we did yesterday.



This first picture is Joshua and Ruth working on their computers. We found out about a really great website www.kahnacademy.org. It's a great resource for learning all sorts of subjects. It's free and the kids love learning with it because the lessons are interesting and they receive points and awards that we can keep track of.


Even though she doesn't look like it in this picture, Hannah really does like working in her workbook. The biggest realization she had with yesterday's lessons was that word-find puzzles really aren't as hard as she thought they were. She finished finding all the words today without any help.


And this is the best picture I could get of Jonathan. He loves to be goofy and make funny faces for the camera. I have a hard time getting a serious picture with him. I guess he makes up for Hannah always making serious faces. Now if I could get them to meet somewhere in the middle for pictures. :-)


And Elijah wouldn't stay still for a picture because of the flash, so I chose this picture of him from Christmas.
He spent most of our lesson time tackling Jonathan. Although Elijah did learn a major lesson yesterday.

I cooked pancakes for us to eat on our drive home from karate class. The kids were wanting to have some but I explained that they just had lunch and that I wanted to save the pancakes for later. Elijah kept asking and I told him a very infatic no. I was distracted for a few seconds typing something into my tablet when I looked up and saw that Elijah had stolen the big bowl of pancakes right from under my nose and was helping himself to them. I knew that I had to teach him real quick that what he did was wrong.

It's hard sometimes as a mother to be firm with your children, when they are young and cute. I don't like seeing my children cry, but I learned quite early on that if you allow wrong behavior when they are little, it only gets harder to teach them what is right when they are older. So to help myself teach my child, I imagine him doing the same crime as a teenager and I nip it in the bud while it is fresh on his mind and while he is still young enough to take me seriously.

He did pucker up and cry real tears of repentance because with his punishment, I explained in simple terms exactly what he did wrong. Then I removed the pancakes from his reach. I held him as he thought, in his young mind, about it. A little later he was showing me something he drew on a magna doodle and I smiled and really bragged on how good of a job he did. I could tell by how he approached me that he was making sure that he had been forgiven and that all was well between us.

Children learn so quickly at such a young age. That is why the Bible tells us to raise them up right while they are young.
This going to be a really good year of growth in our family.

This year will also be good in that we'll be getting to find out whether we are having a girl or a boy this month, the baby is due at the end of May, and my brother and his family will be visiting us while on furlough from France. We're going to finally get to have a family picture with my kids and our brand new baby, his 5 kids (one of whom I hand't met in person yet), and my sister's new baby will be in it.

I am so excited to see all the blessings unfold in 2012!

Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."