Jonah is back

My sweet and lovely husband has decided to take up his blog again to document the building process of our new house. Check out his blog and see what we(read:he) have been up to. There has been lots and lots of cutting down on trees and burning piles in preparation of building our well house and then beginning grading in April. Check it out!

Why?

There have been numerous people over the past 2 years that have commented about us being "just like Jon and Kate". At first, I had no idea who they were. We don't have TV and didn't have access to their show. The fall that the boys came home though, we were in a hotel room somewhere (I don't remember where) and I caught the tail end of one of their shows. It was then that I thought, "What in the world do we have in common with this family?" Very, very little, as a matter of fact. I mean, yes, we have lots of kids, we are Christian's and value each and every life from the beginning but other than that I don't see how people could relate our 2 families. We have SIX kids that all look completely different and they have EIGHT that all look alike. Kate had sextuplets AND twins and the closest I've got is our aptly named "triplets" that look nothing alike and weren't actually all born from the same womb(or on the same day for that matter). One of their older daughters, is by all means, a complete brat that needs some serious discipline and some of their little girls are following right in their big sister's footsteps. My Alana could very well be the same way except for we work very hard at disciplining her and would never allow her to act that way.

Now, don't get me wrong, I like the show. I have found that I can watch some episodes online and Sarah and I enjoy watching one sometimes at night when all the littles go to bed. It is a good show, no cursing, no worrying about something happening that wouldn't be appropriate, etc. I enjoy watching other "large" families in action and not always getting it right. Sometimes it makes my spine crawl with the way that Kate talks to her husband, she can be really disrespectful. But, hey, I've been known to talk that way with Jonah as well, even if I don't like to admit it.

I think what it comes down to is this: people need to relate to others. The people who said "you are just like Jon and Kate" had no other frame of reference to relate to us. They may have never met a "large" family(which I don't really think we are large at all, large is over 8 really) and so to them, it is the only way to relate to us. I also think people who see us out don't know how to approach us sometimes. They don't know what to say. Sometimes I wish that they would just leave us alone and not ask all the stupid questions but strangely enough, the people who have clumped us in with the Gosselin family don't say all the other stupid things that can be hurtful to my kids.

So, random post but just a small glimpse into something that happens often and my thoughts on it;)
Have a blessed day.

Update on Kelly

I feel like all I do is update on Kelly or ask for prayers. I hope you guys don't mind! Kelly was released from the hospital yesterday and is feeling good. I talked to him for about an hour yesterday morning while he was alone and waiting for his wife to get there and the doctor to come see him. He sounded good and upbeat, he amazes me. We had a good chuckle over his hair loss. He had shaved it to a 1 a while back but said that he has been finding lots of short hair on his pillow. One day he took his fingers and pinched his head to pull on his hair and it came out without any feeling at all. No tugging feeling, no pain, just a chunk of his hair in his hand. Strange.

He has his next chemo treatment this Wed. and we are praying in faith that his white blood count will stay about 4200 for the duration of his chemo treatment. Also, his wisdom teeth are killing him and has been the main source of pain. That's the latest, thanks for the prayers!

My Saturday sewing bug results

This morning I wanted to sew. Since I have no dress patterns(need to remedy that soon) I decided to try my hand at a T-shirt dress. I cannot believe how easy it was! It took all of 30 minutes and the results are pretty cute. I still am having issues with gathering but I think I may have figured out what I am doing wrong. I raided Sarah's old t-shirts that are too short for her but still fit and let her choose the shirt. Then, I got out the fabric that would match, which wasn't very many choices and she chose which one she wanted. Even though I won't let her go anywhere in the dress, it will be a really great summer play dress.

PS. Kelly is still in the hospital and it doesn't look like he will be going home any time soon. Some prayer requests for him. 1) that he will eat and sleep! 2) his fever will go down and white blood count will go up 3) that the mega doses of antibiotics they are giving him will not end up useless in the future and 4) that the pain in his mouth will completely go away.

Kelly's in the ICU

Kelly was admitted last night to the ICU because he had a dangerously high fever for chemo patients. The fever went down a little and is now back up this morning and we have no idea when he will be released to go home. His white blood count is very low and he is in some major pain(and he has a very, very high pain tolerance) in his mouth and with one of his wisdom teeth. They are giving him some very strong antibiotics to try and get the infection to go away but, so far, they are not working.

My mom just called and I am talking with her now. Kelly's white blood count went up from 500 to 600 but it is supposed to be at 4100. Looks like he is staying until at least Sunday. We need that blood count to go through the roof!

$$$ Money Meme $$$

Ginger tagged me for this fast and simple tag. List 12 cards you find in your wallet, then tag 12 people.

In order
1. My library card
2. My debit card
3. Driver's license
4. Safeway pharmacy card
5. Costco gift card
6. Costco membership card
7. Hawaiian Airlines Visa
8. Grocery member card
9. AAA card
10. another grocery member card
11. Sarah's library card
12. Our old library card's

And that is it. I have exactly 12.
So, I am not going to tag anyone but if you would like to do this on your blog, go ahead!

An exciting day

First and foremost, this little boy made the decision to follow Jesus this morning. What a fabulous thing to hear as a parent, that your child wants to follow Christ.








This little girl has had her first loose tooth for 5 months now. This morning, she asked Sarah to pull it out.









Here she is, as happy as can be and with one less tooth. Isn't she cute?

A bullet post

I have so much going on right now or, at least, it seems that way. Here's what's been going on lately.

1) Our Exhursion engine light came on again so Jonah took it to the Ford dealership to get it fixed. This has happened every 6 months or so and we are seriosuly looking into what we can do about it since this car is a definite lemon. Jonah has talked to numerous people who have had these same problems with their's too and they all have died at 120,000 miles. Not a good life for a $50,000 car, huh?

2) We have been enjoying non-stop snow for the past 4 days. It just keeps coming and coming and coming. The kids went sledding for the first time and had a blast. I am still looking for some cheap snow pants for all of them since they just get soaked to the skin in their jeans. I found someone who has a pair of bibs for Judah on freecycle so that just leaves 5 more kids...

3) All the snow has delayed working on our property and getting things done. This year is going to be interesting.

4) I am really wanting to learn how to make clothes and be able to sew my girl's some dresses, skirts and shirts. I may ask Jonah if I can take a sewing class in town to learn more than what I already know.

5) Yesterday I researched and chose all the curriculum and units we are going to study for next year. I LOVE homeschooling and being able to chose things for each child to help them learn better.

That's about it for today.

Heard from the back of the car... Malakai talking to Alana. "You had better stop right now or I will throw you in the dungeon and tickle you good!"

Snow, snow and more snow

I LOVE the snow. I didn't grow up in it and I think it makes it more special for me to live where it snows now. I remember clearly the first big snow we got after Jonah and I were married. The electricity went out and we cuddled by a roaring fire and then went for a drive in Jonah's Jeep to spin out and be dangerous(not my idea but it was fun). Then we moved to So Cal and, no snow. 4 of our children had never even played in the snow before and so now, it is something new for most of them and they are having a blast! These pictures are from a few days ago but it dumped another foot of snow this morning and now it is really deep! So deep that Judah can't even walk in it without help.





Sarah getting ready to throw a big snowball at someone.


My sweet Judah. He just walked around pounding his feet into the snow and then trying to pick some up. He was SO happy to be able to play with it.

Look at Alana's throw! She got her sister good to and turned around and giggled up a storm about it!


This is their pathetic snowman, but being their first ever, I think they did an OK job. Notice the black dots on the ground? Those are raisins that were making up the mouth. They didn't stay put for more than 20 seconds before falling off.

Hallah bread

Add the ingredients in the order they are listed.
This will make 2 loaves

1C. warm water
1T. yeast(1package)
3T. sugar
1T. salt
1/2C. oil
2 eggs + 1 yolk for brushing
4-1/2 C. flour



Mix ingredients together with a fork until well blended.



Let rise until doubled. During the winter I put my dough in a warmed oven(turned on until the temp. begins to rise and then turned off) with a damp towel over it. If I did not do this it would take all day for my bread to rise, and I just don't have time to wait that long. This could take anywhere from an hour to 3 hours.



Here it is all nice and risen



Turn out the dough on a slightly floured surface and knead until smooth.



Use a pizza cutter to divide the dough into 6 equal sections.



Using your hands roll out the dough sections into long pieces and then braid them. Make sure you press the ends together to close.



Brush the top with egg yolk.



Bake at 375* for 25-20 minutes. Yummy, yummy! This is great with some homemade preserves slathered on it too.

Pants that are too small?

These pants were Sarah's and then they were passed on to Alana. They are a size 4 and were way to short for Alana to wear. And because we are trying to save every last penny to build our house and get out of debt, I decided to make them into capri's instead of packing them away for our next girl(and who knows if we'll have another). I let Alana pick out the material and since the pants have a little purple design on the back, I think she did pretty good. Also, the fabric was some that I already had so it didn't cost me a penny(same with the crayon roll I made Alana), at least not recently. When I bought it 2 years ago it was $1 yard, so even then I am getting off pretty cheap. Today I will be adding some fabric to the bottom of some overalls she has that are an inch too short. She can wear those during the winter time though, which is good, cause she is growing out of every pair of pants she owns.



I am still working on perfecting my gathering technique. If any of you have any suggestions PLEASE let me know. And... the reason Alana isn't wearing them is because she is in bed with an upset stomach right now. I pray that it doesn't start going around!

Update

Update to Kelly: As of last night he was doing OK. He went back to work even though he didn't feel so hot and I have no idea if the fever is still there or what. I do know they wanted him to come in this morning to get his blood checked again. Pray that his white blood cells are through the roof!

Pray for Kelly

I just got a phone call telling me that Kelly has a fever over 100. He went to the doc and his white blood count is really low so they are sending him to the hospital. If it doesn't go up soon he will be given some meds and he may not be able to do his chemo this week, which we really want him to be able to do! Let's pray this fever out of existence and that his white blood cells will miraculously increase!

Sunday shaving party for Kelly

My brother, Kelly started chemo last Thursday. The doctor told him that he would begin losing his hair in 18 days or so. Well, my brother Chas and Dad decided they would shave their heads with him to support him. The word spread and it became a shaving party. About 30 people showed up to Kelly and Laura's house and 17 people shaved their heads in support of Kelly. Amazing. Of course, we just moved far away but my boys still wanted to shave their heads for Uncle Kelly. Today, we did just that and they are SO pleased with their new do's.



Here is Kelly getting his first round of chemo. He has to go in every 2 weeks for 6 months. The day before he had just had a port put in his chest so that is what all the tape is for.



Laura giving Kelly a Mohawk for fun. He kept this for about a week and then shaved all his hair. He still has not begun losing hair though.



Don't you love the Mohawk? My boys REALLY wanted one too but living in the sticks Jonah thought it would be too whiskey tango. I would have to agree.



Here are my boys ready to get rid of their hair. They were really excited but it was REALLY cold outside and they weren't very happy we were stopping for a picture.



And the end result. We used a 1 on Kai and Judah's hair and a 0 on Isaiah's.

We love you Uncle Kelly!

A craft I did today that was SO easy

Since moving, Jonah and I have not decided on THE church that we will be going to. He gets off work on Sunday mornings and up until now we just haven't gone. I have been going to our old church(from when we lived here years ago) on Thursday nights, which is most likely the one we will make our home church but we're just not sure yet. Anyways, to make a long story short, we keep our 5 and up kids in the adult service with us. We feel that a child of that age is able to sit through the service and glean a small amount of information from it. We found it problematic sending our kids to "kid's church" with (mostly) public/private school kids because of the gross disobedience to authority and minimal time learning about Christ(we volunteered for a year in the K-5 classes and saw this every week). I am NOT saying that it is that way with the church we are in now, but the decision had been made.


So... usually we will give the two 5 year old's a plastic baggie with their crayons in it(and a peice of paper to draw about what they are learning from the message) but it gets pretty noisy when they are rifling through to find just the right color. I learned about these adorable pencil rolls from A Baker's Dozen and decided that these would be the perfect thing to carry the 5 year old's crayon's when we go to church. So today I made one for Alana out of some left over fabric I had from other projects and an old spool of ribbon I had to use in Alana and Sarah's hair for outfits that fit them 3 years ago. I am very pleased by the result and look forward to making Isaiah's and a colored pencil on for Sarah too. It took me about an hour but won't take as long next time since I know what I am doing now!

(Man, I am long-winded...)

BTW, the directions I used are >here.

Pictures of Sierra

I had to drive down to So Cal on Monday (8 hours) to meet a very last minute appointment on Tuesday and then drive home on Wednesday. I brought Judah and Justus with me and Jonah hung out with the older kids at home and worked(really hard) on the land. On Monday night I drove over to my brother's house to meet my neice and she is SO cute! My SIL, Janet, was so wonderful and let me get my baby fix by holding her the whole time I was there, pretty much. As you can see, Justus didn't really like me holding another baby and was quite jealous. I also got to spend some time on Tuesday afternoon with Janet and Sierra. We went to the park and I got to have dinner with them too. It was a VERY quick and frustrating trip but so worth the fact that I got to finally meet Sierra.






This is about a wide as I could get her eyes open the whole time I was there until about 10 minutes before I left. She is a very "sleepy" baby but oh so cute...

Melting a Mommie's heart

Saturday night the kids and I were sitting around the table eating. I posed a question to them, "If you could only do one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?" Alana said, go to Disneyland. Isaiah said, Go to Hawaii. Sarah wasn't sure but then decided on Knott's Berry Farm. Then I get to Malakai and ask him the same question. I'm thinking he'll choose a "place" like all the other kids did. Instead, he looks at me with his thinking face and says, "I would want to worship Jesus for the rest of my life." This little 4 year old melted my heart in two and he didn't even know it.