Happy Birthday Lizzie!

Well, I'm kind of late getting this post up, but I've been busy all day making an awesome cake. :-D

I'll start off by listing 4 things about Lizzie.

1-Currently, her favorite color is purple. She has a collection of purple clothes and on Sundays, the only dress I can ever get her to wear is the one she picked out herself...which happens to be purple and covered in sparkles.

2-She's such a lightweight, but all day long, she is constantly asking for food and saying, "but mom, I'm stiiiiiiil huuuungry! She's like the hungry little caterpillar...except she doesn't put on any weight. :-D

3-When ever you give her a snack that she really likes, she will say, "Mmm, that's the *good* stuff". Speaking of snacks, her favorite snack is graham crackers and chocolate milk. That's all she'd ever eat if let her.

4-She is and always has been, a master hider. She randomly goes missing and we have to go look for her. Usually you have to be really quiet and listen for her breathing. She likes to turn toy boxes upside down and hid under them.

I can't believe she is 4. Where does the time go.

Despite being kind of a goofy looking baby...

She's turning into a pretty little girly. We just love her.

For her birthday she got a little Cinderella figurine play set, and the book Purplicious. I also gave her a purple crown to wear during dinner. She loved it. lol.

And, here's a picture of just her cake. I originally planned for it to be much smaller. It would have been a lot easier to do had it been. *shrug* Oh well. I still think it turned out pretty good. :)

Happy Birthday Miss Lulu. We love you and are so glad you are a part of our family.

Dear Lactation Consultant,

I really appreciate your wanting to help. However, it would be great if you didn't send a messenger to discuss my use of a binky, while in a waiting room packed full of people, and assume I'm an idiot. Also, when I say I don't want to talk to a lactation consultant during my hospital stay, don't make your way into my room anyway. The first time I overlooked as a fluke. But when it happened a second and third time, (with later babies) that was just annoying. In the future, if I need your assistance I will be sure to contact you. In the mean time, leave me alone. Thanks.

Sincerely,

Successful breastfeeding mother who uses both a binky AND bottle. (For baby, not myself...just to clarify. :-D)

Back story, you say? Well...

Today, while waiting in the waiting area for my 48 hour, baby, follow up visit, a nurse comes in, sits down next to me and this is the conversation we have.

Nurse: Excuse me ma'am, what is your last name?

(I tell her my last name, thinking she's just verifying who I am so she can tell me they can't get me in, since I was 2 hours late for my appt. (doh))

Nurse: Ms. Arnold, (points to the binki in my hand) I was just wondering, did you get that binki here.

Me: uh...no. I got it at walmart, actually.

Nurse: Oh, okay. Are you breastfeeding?

Me: Yes.

Nurse: Okay, Well, I was sent on a mission by the lactation consultant to talk to you a little bit about how the use of a binky can effect breastfeeding...(or something to that effect)

Me: (instantly annoyed and cutting her off) Yes, well, this is my 4th baby and...

Nurse: (jumps our of her chair) Oh, enough said. I will let her know. I'm very sorry. She saw you holding that binky with her binky radar from waaaaaay over there.

(I look around, can't even see her office. Wow, that's some radar!!!)

She continues to apologize one more time before making a quick exit. Meanwhile, we've got everyone's attention in the waiting room.

Really. REALLY??? UGH!!!

I won't bore you with the details of my previous encounters with pushy LC's. Lets just say, this experience did not improve my opinion of them.

The End.

Not to brag or anything...

Who am I kidding. I think I've earned bragging rights. :-D Baby Andrew arrived yesterday, weighing in at a whopping 10lbs 9oz and I survived it all with no pain meds and very minimal damage. Was I wanting the pain meds?? Yes, yes I was, but by that time it was a little late. Luckily I have short labors. This one lasted 5 1/2 hours start to finish with only an hour or so of intense labor. The very end was the worst. They got to a point where they had me stop pushing so he could work his way out slowly, and that hurt. That part lasted about 5 minutes, but seemes like 5 hours. When they told me how much he weighed, I about fell off the hospital bed. At first I thought they were joking. I kept asking, "What?? How much? Are you SURE???". I'm still a little bit in shock. It sure explains a lot. lol. Still, despite his weight, he is such a cute little peanut. We just love him. He is so fun and snuggly and the kids love him. Well, the older 2 anyways. I think Jimmy is undecided. Or just bitter because he's been dethroned. Who's to say. :-D Either way, sure glad he's finally here.

Thank you everyone who helped us out!! I was so grateful for my friend and visiting teacher, Rachel, who was able to come watch the kids on short notice! She was such a blessing. And thank you Mary for the hat, which inspired the cute take home outfit. :-D LOVE IT!

20 and Counting

Yes, In case you missed it, the Duggars are expecting baby #20!!! The responses I've seen are pretty mixed. Ranging form shock and horror to excitement for them. I lean towards the latter. And anyone who knows me well, knows why. Here is a wonderful family with, happy, healthy children and a loving mother and father, who love God and see children as a blessing from God. I can see where they are coming from. I see my children the same way. They are a blessing from God and I want lots of them. That's not to say that having lots of children is all peaches. Anyone with even one child, knows what a challenge they can be and the frustrations that often arise. But the happiness they bring into a home far outweighs any of the negatives. Is everyone meant to have 20 children??? No. And no one is saying you should. That is a personal decision that should be made between a couple and the lord. But what I don't understand are the negative responses. Who the heck cares?!? Why do we feel the need to judge? Of course, coming from a big family myself, and loving it, I admit that I am biased. I loved growing up with so many siblings. And I especially appreciate them even more as an adult. My siblings are my best friends. All of them at one point or another has had a positive impact on my life. I've learned a lot from all of them.

As a mother, I am especially grateful for the experience I gained from being part of a big family. I am the middle of 15, so as you can imagine, I had to do some helping out. One of the negative things I've heard regarding the Duggars, is how awful it must be that the older children have to spend so much time helping out with the younger children, and what a burden it must be on them. Watching one of the interviews with some of the older children, they were very clear that they did not see it as a burden and with smiles on their faces expressed how much they loved it. Now, I wasn't considered one of the older ones and didn't have to do a lot of helping out until the youngest was born (that I can remember anyways) But I did do my fair share of babysitting and diaper changing. There were times when I would much rather have been hanging out with my friends than watching my younger siblings. I grew to appreciate the experience as I got older. BUT, now, looking back, WHAT A BLESSING. When I started having my own kids I already had a lot of child care experience under my belt. Not just from watching my siblings, but also from helping out with neices and nephews. (As you can imagine, there are a lot of them as well.) I already knew how to dress and bathe a baby and change diapers. (Cloth diapers at that.) I learned a lot from my parents. Even the things I didn't personally experience, just being able to watch my mother taught me a lot about child rearing. I remember being totally excited when my mom would bring home another baby. So, I'm not surprised to see how excited the Duggar kids are to have yet another little one come into their home. And when you watch the parents as they talk about bringing another baby into the world, you can't help but feel happy for them because they look so happy!! Why is it so surprising that having yet another baby could make them happy? Babies and children bring such a sweet spirit into the home. They are so innocent and fresh from God!

Talking to my mother, and hearing the way she talks about her children, I see first hand how much happiness her children have brought into her life. I once heard her express how sad it would be if she would have stopped at 5 or so. (Since I'm #8, I happen to agree. :-D) And I can't imagine what life would be like without all my siblings. They are all amazing people!

I think it's sad that people who have big families are looked at as being crazy. Why is that? I don't understand. Someone explain that to me. Please.

Long ago, in a galaxy far far away...

Lived Jedi Jacob, Princess Lulu Leia, and Jimmy...the cutest ewok ever.

All having fun at the Trunk-or-Treat.

With cousin ewoks Carter and Cooper. (In this story, anyone who wants to, gets to carry a light saber. Even ewoks. You can't see it, but Jimmy has one too.) Below, baby Andrew is in command of the death star (hand painted by Mike) just a week away from making his appearance in the world. And that's Mike under that storm trooper mask.

Our trunk won a prize. Most creative, I believe. So proud. Keep in mind, this picture was taken AFTER the kids got to it.

Another hand painted creation of Mike's.

And my random, un Star Wars related pumpkin.

Happy Halloween!! May the force be with you. *waves hand in front of your face* You will now bring me all your best candy. :)

You Know You're in Georgia When...

You pass a giant butt...er...peach water tank.

As many of you know, Mike's Dad passed away last week. Since he didn't have a funeral, Mike decided to do something that reminded him of fun times he had with his dad. So, we went camping. I'm not gonna lie, I was nervous. I love camping, but the thought of 3 kids around a fire pit and wooded areas they could wander off and get lost in was slightly terrifying. But, we went, and not only did we survive the trip, we had lots of fun. Jacob even announced that he wants to live in a tent forever. :-D

Camping that particular weekend was kind of tricky because there was pretty much a giant rain cloud covering the whole state. So Mike had to find us a place out of state where it wasn't raining. On Monday morning we headed to Tallulah Falls, GA. It was about a 5 hour drive (took us more like 8) to get there. We stopped at Target on the way there to buy Lizzie some camping appropriate shoes and saw these swords in the dollar section. I love dollar toys that can entertain kids for hours on end!

We got there and started to pull into our assigned spot, only to find it was RIGHT by the main road. Um, no. I don't think so. So we drove around and found a spot we felt was more appropriate for young kids and then I made Mike go back to the front building to get a new reservation. It really was the perfect spot. Right next to the bathrooms and a playground. Awesome. What more can a pregnant mother of young children ask for in a camping spot.

Our first evening there was a little rough. We pulled in, unloaded and started to set up. I decided it would be smart to tie Jimmy to a leash to prevent him from wandering off while we were setting up. Unfortunately, he kept getting tangled and falling. At one point he totally face planted it in the gravel and skinned his poor little nose and elbows. So, at that point I figured it was a pointless effort and the kids and I headed over to the playground while Mike finished setting up camp. When we got back we started up a fire and got going on dinner. I had planned to roast hot dogs, but as I started to get everything out, I discovered that I packed everything BUT the hot dogs. Brilliant! So, we had sandwiches instead. While we were were getting stuff out for dinner, Jimmy was climbing on the cement table. He took one wrong step and slipped, hitting his eye on the rough surface. Totally skinned his cheek and eyebrow. He was struggling.

Not wanting to waste a perfectly good fire we decided to roast some marshmallows and make s'mores. It was going well, until Jimmy tripped and caught himself on the side of the fire pit, burning his hand. We were in the middle of taking care of his burn when the down poor of rain began. So...the kids and I ran to the shelter of the van, while Mike inflated our air mattresses in the tent. Jimmy was screaming the whole time. It's a good thing it was a week day and there were not many other campers around. And the ones that were there were in trailers so the sound of his screaming was hopefully muffled. Luckily his burns were mild and only left slight red marks. Still, I was ready to call it quits and head home.

It rained all night long. But the tent held up well and we stayed warm and dry. The next day was much better. We got out the pack n play for Jimmy when the fire was going, and let him wander all he wanted when there was no fire. He was one happy kid. He did start going a little stir crazy once the evening fire was started though. I saw him doing this a lot...

And this...

Mike thought it was weird that I stuck a few buckets and sand shovels in the van, but he was thanking me later. They got played with A LOT!
We fit quite a bit in on Tuesday. After the kids finished school (one of the great things about home school, you can go on vacation and not get behind. :-D) Mike took Jacob and Lizzie on a mini hike while Jimmy napped and I vegged. They took a trail down to the waterfall and then to the museum they have there. The kids LOVED it. When they got back, Mike showed Jacob how to properly use a pocket knife and how to whittle. Was I a bit nervous about that? Um yes.

Later, Mike drove all of us down to the museum and we walked to the waterfall from there, because he wanted me to see it and I didn't want to walk a mile to see it. (Or however far it was. How's that for being lazy.) It was still a walk to get there but it was worth it. It was a really pretty waterfall.

Here's Jacob and his walking stick that Mike "made" for him.

Jimmy didn't really nap well in his new environment, so he was pretty tired by the end of our walk.

After driving us back to camp Mike decided to take Jacob on another hike down to the lower falls. This is Jacob's camera smile.

By the time they got back, Mike was carrying Jacob. He really tired him out.

Luckily, there was a walmart close by, so Mike went and got us some hot dogs. We also tried the s'mores again. It worked out much better with Jimmy safely in his pack n play.

After dinner, Mike broke out the glow sticks. Is it just me, or does he look a lot like Goofy here?

I just had to post some pictures of Jimmy here. I let him color with markers while the kids were doing school. He ended up coloring himself more than his paper. He even colored in his ears. Between the scratches on his face and the marker, he was lookin' pretty good.

But he was happy. :-D I think we built some fun family memories with the kiddos and I think the trip was pretty therapeutic for Mike. So, overall, the trip was very successful. I'm glad we stuck it out and stayed.

Remember these guys?

It's been a while since I last posted pictures of these monkeys...

And when I say monkeys, I mean monkeys. This one is very into grooming...and strawberries, as you can see from the mess all over his face, arm, and shirt.

I love this picture. As you can see, he is our only non-brown eyed child so far. I'm not really sure what you'd call them. Bluish green with some brown flex in there.

It's not the best picture, but this is a look she frequently has on her face.

Aunt Mary made brownies for us for dessert one Sunday. Obviously, they were a hit.

I knew when he figured out how to climb the trampoline ladder at Grandma and Grandpa Chidester's house, this wasn't going to far off.

Totally makes me nervous, considering he's a bit clumsy. I can't tell you how many times he's fallen down the stairs, even though he's quite good and walking up and down them. So far, no broken bones from falling down them, but this, I'm sure, would cause a bit more damage. Lets just say, we keep the kids door closed now.

I'm thinking we should have gone with a smaller doll house. This one just seems to scream, "climb on in". Lizzie has also found herself stuck in this same spot a few times.

Ummm...Good thing they don't know how to turn it on. :-S

That is all. :)