Everyone on Sunday morning

To everything there is a story...

Three summers ago I bought these aqua polos at Macy's. Loved them.

So happy that they had them in such a broad range of sizes.

Never found anything to match for the girls so the shirts just hung in the closet for a year.

Last summer I found this lovely fabric!

I made a dress for MaryVance (can you tell is has a smocked bodice?) and a jumper for Molly. I also made a romper for Joseph and a John-John for Isaac from aqua gingham. Lovely. Really. It looked very nice together.

This year I really wanted MaryVance to be able to wear this dress (because I put a lot of time into the smocking of it). Molly's jumper didn't fit her. It looked like a maternity jumper. Her shape is changing... So I took it apart, fitted the bodice and cut a new skirt from the old one. So far, so good.

Now to find something for Joseph and Isaac to wear. Of course last year's outfits don't fit and Ike's from last year is too big for Joseph this year.

Sigh.

The boys XL still fits Caleb (which is very surprising as he wears mostly S or M in mens). I decide that a pale to medium yellow polo for the littlest boys would fit the bill.

I'm on a quest.

Can't find them anywhere.

No where.

Yellow must be *out* for this year.

Sigh.

So what do I do? I go to my trusty friends at HearthKeepers and ask their opinion. They are great! Kelly sends me to The Children's Place where there are several options. [Thanks again Kelly!!] I really didn't want to order online because I wanted to be able to see the colors in person and I can never tell about Joseph's size until I see the shirt.

Tony to the rescue. He finds a Children's Place in Tallahassee. We are headed there anyway so...

Saturday we head to Tallahassee (remind me to tell you the story about our trip to Sam's Club if I forget...)

Kelly mentioned that she didn't think the 'azure' blue would be a close enough match but she would go with green. I wasn't sure about green and aqua... But when we got there and looked at everything all together I really liked it!!!

Whew! Now you want to see the photo?

Here's a closeup of the original shirt and the dress. See the leaf green in the dress? It's the same color as the green shirts!

and a close-up of some of the smocking...

Puppy Outfits

He likes it.
Really.
He does.



I promise.

The children are all well!

We are officially FLU-FREE here!

Thank you Lord!

I am, however, battling a nasty sinus thing.... it's much better than the flu though!!

Health Update

We finally figured out that the children have the entire 'symptom set' for the flu. It didn't really occur to me that it could be the flu because when I had the flu I felt like I had been Hit By A Mack Truck. I don't remember nose/throat/chest stuff at all...

Here are the children's symptoms:
high fever, cough, headache, sore throat, stuffy nose, body aches, and some have had diarrhea...

According to the CDC website:
"Influenza usually starts suddenly and may include the following symptoms:
Fever (usually high)
Headache
Tiredness (can be extreme)
Cough
Sore throat
Runny or stuffy nose
Body aches
Diarrhea and vomiting (more common among children than adults)"

Sounds so similar, doesn't it?

Now for our update! Everyone is on the mend. Caleb and Isaac were the last to get sick and are the last two with fever. Caleb's is a little higher than Isaac's but they are both over the hump and on their way to well. I would say Joseph is 100% today and the others are following closely behind.

Thank you for your prayers!

....nice....

So the mail lady drives up to the house to bring our mail and says "I see you got it too... someone got almost all the mailboxes on this road last night".

Sigh.
Fun. Fun.

Ultrasound this afternoon...

stay tuned...


UPDATE:
Most importantly... wee babe is Healthy and Normal! Thank you Lord!!

There's only one wee babe in there!

And....
Well, when I called Jaynie to tell her the results she said "You are so predictable!" -giggle-

Yep! Our seventh son!!!!!!! Isn't that just amazing?!

See his profile? Abdomen and head, the darkest areas are fluid and the whitest parts are bone. See his forehead?

Okay, follow me on this one. You have a baby laying down to change his daper. Cock your head to the right. You see his legs bent at the knee and his hiney (the dark white lines are leg bones). Between his hiney you see his boyness. Do you see the little arrow pointing to a sticky-out thing? That's it!

I have sick children... UPDATED

Started Saturday night with Joseph. Fever. No other symptoms.
Monday morning Molly woke up with fever.
Tuesday afternoon Elijah came down with fever.
Wednesday morning Sam... and then MaryVance.

Please pray for us. Thank you!

UPDATE:
Thursday... Caleb
Friday... Isaac

That should be everyone! This *thing* is starting as several days of high fever and morphing into cold/allergy symptoms for most of them. Sore throat, itchy eyes, coughing, nasal congestion...

Today is day seven for Joseph and he's not 100% better yet.

I'm so thankful that it's not anything serious...just annoying :)

an Ike-ism...

(a funny from Isaac)

The other day Isaac came up to me and said, "Did you know babies like to be in their mother's tummies?"

I said "They do? How'd you know that?"

He replied, with a serious expression "I read it in the newspaper."

LOL

Wanna see a belly pic? or two?

Mama... these are for you :-)

10 weeks 6 days(excuse the silly face...)

14 weeks 5 days

And since I know you are wondering.. I've gained 6 pounds ;-) Yes, -nodding my head- that's very odd for me??

Fun at Three Rivers State Park

Our sweet children... in case you can't remember who's who... on the left: Caleb is holding Isaac, MaryVance, Luke is behind MaryVance, Molly is holding Joseph, and Elijah is in Sam's lap. Got it? There will be a test later. -giggle-
Caleb. He's not blurry in real life... 15 years old. sigh.
Molly. She's 13 and a half and a half...
Sam. Just turned 12.
Luke. aka 'Texas' (lives in this hat. sleeps in this hat. it stinks. how do you wash a cap?!). Luke is 9 + + .

Miss MaryVance. 7. still. till May. :-)
Elijah. All that. and 6 years old to boot!
Isaac. Ike. -snap- "I'm outta here". -snap- again "I'm outta here again." Yep, he's four.
Joseph. Too cute for just one pic.
There. Does that give you a Joseph Fix? He's 20 months full of lusciousness!!

Aahhh.... I think I'll have another... giggle. Check back in September for that pic!

Joseph and Chocolate Pudding.

He is such a Big Boy.... feeding himself.

This was his first time to have chocolate pudding.

I think he likes it!

School Day at Lewis Academy :-)

Notice the teacher's chair is vacant? Well, of course... she's the photographer! -giggle-
Hard at work!
MaryVance doing a pretest in her new math book. She tested out of the first 17 pages -- Way to go Mare!!
Caleb was Isaac's teacher today. He's learning to write "B".
Sam & Molly... Such concentration! Aren't you proud?
Look at that! Reading all by himself! Yeah Elijah!
Luke is pondering...

A pretty typical school day!

Picnic in the backyard

Yesterday the little boys were in desperate need of an Adventure. I had the bright idea to have the big boys set up our smaller tent for them to play in at the back of our backyard. It was a big hit! Elijah wanted to have a picnic lunch there too! I thought you'd enjoy some pictures :)

Just call her Funyan Face.... hahahahaha

They played in the tent for hours and hours and had a blast. Now they want to sleep in it tonight! We'll have to see what Daddy says about that ;).

Visiting the Bakers on St George Island

On Feb 11, Sam's birthday, we drove down to St George Island to visit our dear friends who were vacationing there.

We just want to wade in ankle deep, Mama... really...


Ooops...I think Ike is All Done!

These pics were taken on the bay. Later we went to the ocean side:

The sun was really bright so ignore the shadows!

Charlana does the beach!!!

Charlotte and Dana!

(PS Mom and Tommy... *this* is really where you need to vacation -nodding- yes!!)

Our little creek...

Remember that little creek that trickles through our property. Well, it has rained and rained and rained for two days and look at it now! You can normally just step across it!!