Ron Paul's take on the Swine Flu

Give-away

A friend of mine over at Tales from the Farm House is having a book giveaway of Laura Schlessinger's new book, "In Praise of Stay at Home Moms". If you would like to enter head on over there and leave a comment. Just make sure you tell her that I sent you to her in your comment so that I get extra-credit!;) I really, really want this book!

Baptism

I went to church last night because Jonah has a meeting on Sunday and we won't be going then. I may have mentioned before, but we keep our kids in the adult service with us once they reach 5. I was especially glad last night as our pastor talked a little bit about baptism and that it is the first thing we are told to do after we are "saved". Alana listened intently and when the service was over proudly stated that she wanted to be baptized. We have been talking with her about it since Sarah's baptism last year but she just didn't want to. She was SO excited that she ran up to every single person she knew proclaiming, "I am going to be baptized for the first time!" Well, when Isaiah saw this(he was asleep during the last part of the service and didn't hear the baptism part) he announced he wanted to be baptized too! And, since both Alana and Isaiah have proclaimed Jesus as their Savior we think it is a great thing for them to do and proclaim it to others as well.

Grading the land

Yesterday we(by we I mean Jonah) spent a full 10 hours on the land having it "rough" graded. The kids and I stopped by in between nap time and school time to watch the tractor push around a lot of dirt. All you blog stalkers and not-stalker's alike, have many house-building pictures to look forward to in the coming months. Don't worry though, there will be plenty of cute kids pictures to even it all out.

For both Jonah and I yesterday was surreal. It is finally happening, for real. There is no turning back now, is there? Not that we have even thought about it. Next week we are hoping to get the 2nd step to grading done(laying down gravel for dust abatement) and on Sunday Jonah is meeting with a friend who is going to help us build the house(again, by us, I mean Jonah). It is all happening so fast! By the end of May we will have our foundation laid and maybe even some walls up! Crazy.



Spring has sprung and I am loving it! This is only about 1/3 of the leaves this oak will get but I love to look up and stare at the sky through the green leaves.




I LOVED this oak. It was supposed to hold our rope swing and border the east edge of our circle driveway. The driveway was to go in between the two oaks you see in the picture. But, alas, it was too dangerous to keep and had to be taken out. The base on this thing is gargantuan!



Look at that root ball!






Looking from the east corner of the house to the circle drive oak. I am thinking that little knoll up there will be good for a kids play structure complete with a zip line down to the side of the house a few hundred feet. How fun would that be?





Another veiw of the circle drive and knoll.





The carriage house(first phase) site all flattened out and ready for some footers and foundation! Can you see the stakes?






Until next time...

Update on Kelly!

Kelly had an appointment with his oncologist today to be told the results of his latest CT and PT scan that he had a month ago. Don't know why it took so long to find out the results but the cancer is gone, totally gone! Of course the doc says that the treatment is working but I say it's a miracle! His tumors were HUGE and in just 2 months they are gone? Come on now... The doc does want him to finish his chemo(3 more months) because this type of cancer can very likely come back but they are also worried about his heart since the last 3 months does the most damage. He will be having another heart test to make sure it is doing well in 3 weeks, so we can continue to pray for that! I am flying high today! Praise the Lord, for HE is GOOD!

Wondering?

For the last few days I have been wondering what God has in store for me over the next few years. Are there going to be more children? More babies? Will our house get finished on our timeline? Will we get to go on that family vacation we have been dreaming about? Will I miraculously get pregnant like we've been praying for the last 6 years? What is God going to "try" to teach me and am I going to learn well? I sure hope so.

So, what have you been wondering about this week?

JooJoo

Here is a picture of Judah right around his first birthday. Notice the hair? Oh, how I loved all that beautiful hair he had. It was truly, amazingly gorgeous. And the picture is deceptive, he looks WAY bigger than he was at the time. (sorry about the size of the pic.)


Judah will be 3 years old tomorrow and boy is he growing up. I don't think I have noticed such a huge change between birthday's with any of my other children. When Judah came home from Liberia he was a teeny, tiny, little 14 month old baby who was very much in need of some attachment parenting. I carried him All. The. Time. He was always on my back or on my hip or in my lap or in my arms. And guess what? It worked beautifully. All those tired days where all I wanted was for him to just be OK without me within touching distance or when all I wanted was just 2 minutes to go to the bathroom or take a shower by myself, worked. I would strongly, whole-heartedly encourage those of you who are adopting an older baby/small toddler to hold them as much as possible and NOT let anyone else, except their Daddy hold them, for at least a month, if not longer(we did almost 3 months). It is SO important for your child's well-being. OK, off my tangent.








Now, we have a happy, funny, talkative little boy who just made the big leap to wearing big boy underwear last week and hasn't had ONE accident! His favorite thing to do is play with fire engines and can, most days, be found with one in his pocket. He loves to play with his siblings but plays really, really well alone for his age. He and Malakai fight all the time but it's not quite fair because Kai is such a brute and Judah is still such a peanut. Within the last 2 months I have noticed his waist getting a little thicker and his underwear actually fit him now! This is HUGE as he was so, so, so tiny for so long. I've noticed his feet are bigger and he is just looking more and more like a big boy than a baby.







Something that I love about Judah now is that he is telling us he loves us all the time. Before, we would tell him but he wouldn't say it back, then he would say it back to us when we told him we loved him. Now, he will just blurt it out without any prompting from anyone else. He is a very simple child, it is very easy to make him happy. On the other hand, he is by far the MOST stubborn child I have ever met in my entire life. The good part about that? He has learned that no matter what, Jonah and I WILL win. It has been ALL about consistency with this boy and it has worked fairly quickly. Yes, he still has some episodes of, "I-will-not-do-anything-you-say-just-because-I-wanna-be-a-butt" but for the most part the battles are very few. And that's pretty good coming from a just turned 3 year old, right?






The thing I love the most about this boy is his smile. It is the most drop dead gorgeous smile you have ever seen and it melts my heart every time. When he is "really" smiling, you can tell. His eyes light up and there is an electricity about him that is undeniable. With his super long "should-have-been-a-girl's" eyelashes and beautiful big brown eyes, this boy gets most of the comments from strangers.

Judah would like nothing more than to just hang out with Jonah and I on the floor with a toy or two while the other kids play elsewhere. He is very comfortable and happy to just hang out and doesn't ever get bored. All-in-all this boy is so very special to our family and we are very blessed to be able to bring him home and make him our son. So, there's Judah in a few paragraphs!

Today's hairstyle

Today we aren't going anywhere and I normally would let the girls do their own hair but they insisted that I do their hair and so I obliged them. I didn't have a lot of time to devote to it and so I found a style that was quick and easy. It took me about 5 minutes total for each. If you want to know how to do these you can see my previous post and find tutorials of these and many more hair-do's at those sites.


Here is the front. The way I took the picture, you can't really see it, but she is too cute not to see that face;)



Here is the back. I chose to keep hers in a pony tail and add a ribbon. Her hair was almost too short for this style but the twists just made it under the pony.



The top. Pull-through with twists into a pony tail. This is a very quick and easy style.

It was really cold outside, so don't mind Sarah's fake-I'm-really-cold-could-you-hurry-up-please smile. Here is the front.


Here is the back with a pony tail. I didn't want to curl it and it looked really scraggly just hanging there since Sarah's hair is neither straight nor curly.


So, I decided to do it in a messy bun type thing instead. She really likes it like this too, and it makes the style look better if I don't have time for curling.

Alana's do

I finally got around to doing Alana's hair once she woke up from her nap and she was SOOOOO pleased with this hairdo. It is the one I had planned on doing on Sarah's hair but screwed up. Of course, she asked for me to add bows. I can't tell you how thrilled I am that her hair is long enough to do this. Finally, after waiting almost 6 years... this will be the first of many to come, I can promise you that.

Fun do's

I am a mom that LOVES to do my girls' hair. When our Liberian boys came home things changed a bit and I wasn't as worried about perfection and fun with the girls' hair but more about how quick it could get done. Sarah has never really liked me doing her hair if it takes too long unless it's something she really likes but as she is getting older it has been harder for me to interest her in anything but a ponytail or pigtail braids. Sometimes, she'll go for a side pony but not often. About a year ago she went to a LibbyLu party and had her hair done up really cute. She was hooked but with a new baby, I just didn't have the time to spend doing her hair that way. Well, I found this website a few days ago that has all these great ideas for tween hair. Not babyish but still nice and creative. I have been getting tired of not enjoying my girls' hair-dos and decided that I can and will devote more time to their hair when we are going into town or to church. Today we looked through the site and Sarah found a bunch of things she really liked that I liked too and so we decided to try one out today and see how we liked it. I actually screwed up from the original hair-do but still really like the outcome. The best part? So does Sarah.
After nap I am going to give Alana's hair a try but I think hers is going to be too thin and too short. We'll see how it goes.

Oak tree down

Last week we had a guy come to the land to cut down a specific oak tree(that was too big around for Jonah's saw) and cut out some mistletoe from some others we wanted to keep. Well, he decided that the one we were going to cut out would come out better(meaning the whole root) when we graded using a back hoe. It is right in line with our driveway and we didn't want the root and stump to be left. As he began to climb another tree very close to our future house to cut out some mistletoe, he noticed that it sounded hollow. After further investigation, he recommended we take the whole thing down, it was just too dangerous. Sigh, 3 beautiful oak trees taken out cause they are just too old and damaged. Better our kids safety than a tree staying in the ground. Here are 2 videos of one of the trees we have taken down. It took him longer than I thought and so it is divided into 2. He tied the tree up to his truck and made it taut so that it wouldn't go the other direction and damage some nice trees we want to keep. The video does not do justice the awesomeness of a tree falling to the ground. The sound is amazing. Enjoy!

Isaiah's birthday and Easter

In random order, some pictures of our weekend celebrating Isaiah's birthday and our risen Lord!


All the kids, at Daddy's fire station, waiting for cupcakes.


Isaiah liking what he sees in the package.



One happy boy with, yet another, fire truck.


These are the 2 best pictures of all the kids together. It was impossibly hard to do as they were not in the mood to be taking pictures!



Here all the kids AND adults are looking for the one missing egg.




Justus walked around with his basket the whole time and would take his egg and check out and then put them back in. He had lots of fun!



Isaiah trying to figure out how to get that egg out of the tree.




Kai found an egg!



My beautiful Sarah in her new dress.


Ready to go to Oma and Opa's to celebrate Isaiah's birthday and Jesus' ressurection!

For those who haven't seen this...

I am re-posting this from last year. My kids can not wait to do it again and it is so easy.

Easter Story cookies

To be made the evening before Easter
You need:
1 cup whole pecans
1 tsp. Vinegar
3 egg whites
Pinch salt
1 cup sugar
Zipper baggie
Wooden spoon
Tape
Bible

Preheat oven to 300 degrees (this is important-don't wait until You're
half done with the recipe)!

Place pecans in zipper baggie and let children beat them with the
wooden spoon to break into small pieces.
Explain that after Jesus was arrested.He was beaten by the Roman soldiers.
Read John 19:1-3.

Let each child smell the vinegar. Put 1 tsp. vinegar into mixing
bowl.
Explain that when Jesus was thirsty on the cross, He was given
vinegar to drink.
Read John 19:28-30.

Add egg whites to vinegar.
Eggs represent life. Explain that Jesus gave His life to give us life.
Read John 10:10-11.

Sprinkle a little salt into each child's hand. Let them taste it and
brush the rest into the bowl.
Explain that this represents the salty tearsshed by Jesus' followers, and the bitterness of our own sin.
Read Luke 23:27.

So far, the ingredients are not very appetizing. Add 1 cup sugar.
Explain that the sweetest part of the story is that Jesus died because He
loves us. He wants us to know and belong to Him.
Read Ps. 34:8 and John 3:16.

Beat with a mixer on high speed for 12 to 15 minutes until stiff
peaks are formed.
Explain that the color white represents --in God's eyes -- the purity of those whose sins have been cleansed by Jesus.
Read Isa. 1:18 and John 3:1-3.

Fold in broken nuts. Drop by teaspoons onto wax paper-covered cookie sheet.
Explain that each mound represents the rocky tomb where Jesus' body was laid.
Read Matt. 27:57-60.

Put the cookie sheet in the oven, close the door and turn the oven OFF. Give each child a piece of tape and seal the oven door.
Explain that Jesus' tomb was sealed.
Read Matt. 27:65-66.

GO TO BED! Explain that they may feel sad to leave the cookies in the oven overnight. Jesus' followers were in despair when the tomb was sealed.
Read John 16:20 and 22.

On Easter morning, open the oven and give everyone a cookie. Notice the cracked surface and take a bite. The cookies are hollow!
On the first Easter, Jesus' followers were amazed to find the tomb open and
empty.
Read Matt. 28:1-9

Try it and I'd love to hear how your's turned out and what your kids thought about it!

ZayZay

I know this picture is small, I couldn't figure out how to make it bigger but this is Isaiah very close to his 4th birthday in Liberia. It was the second time Melodie(orphanage director) was able to get a picture of him smiling. It was something that he didn't do for a very long time.

Tomorrow, Isaiah Ryan Thomas, turns six years old. I can clearly remember waking up on his 4th birthday longing to be with him in Liberia and sad that I hadn't met him yet. I knew that there was a big likelihood that he wouldn't even know it was his birthday that day, I knew he probably didn't care. Now, 2 years later, it's a whole different story. This boy is American. It is amazing to me how quickly he has forgotten but I knew it would happen sooner or later. He cannot wait for tomorrow and all the goodies it is going to bring, especially the cup cakes!




Isaiah came home at 4 years old, and like his older sister, there have been many challenges bonding with him and him learning to trust us. It is still a work in progress for the both of us but it seems that the closer we get to the 2 year mark, the more we are seeing change(again, for us both). He is beginning to seek out my affection instead of my having to ask for it. It's funny, because he hugs on others all the time, including Jonah, but with me it seems hard for him somehow. Isaiah has had to learn how to give a hug. I don't know how to explain it, but he didn't know how to rest his body against someone else's. He was stiff and tight. He still is sometimes but now I tell him to give me a real hug and he can relax. This little boy has been through more change in his short little life than most adults do in a lifetime!




Choosing to adopt Isaiah was a HUGE decision for us but one we are grateful we made. He and Kai are the best of friends and adore each other. They have SO much fun laughing and playing and just being boys together and it is very fun to watch. It's even better that they still share clothes! I cannot tell you how wonderful it is to watch my boys play rough and tumble and see the joy they get from being together. They don't even fight!

So, what is Isaiah like? He is a sweet, funny little boy who loves to annoy the heck out of his big sister, Sarah, and is always bonking his head on something(it's ridiculous really). He and Sarah are always trying to get each others goats and I am constantly trying to teach them to get along. Isaiah has a scream on him that could break glass! It is so high pitched and loud it's unbelievable, really. When Jonah chases him around the house, watch out and cover your ears!
He is a very good worker and loves to "work like a man" around the house and on the land. And boy does he have an appetite! We have had to limit his portions since coming home and not let him eat as much as he wanted. It was not a good thing. His big Africa belly is almost gone but when he eats a big meal it pushes right on out there:) My can he eat! He has this system that he uses and it is so funny to watch. He has never told us about it but after much observation Jonah and I figured it out. He eats in stages from his least liked food to his favorite food on his plate. When the plate is put in front of him, he will take a bite of each food. Then he will proceed to separate all the foods to where he wants them and start eating. It is really funny to watch!




Isaiah has had lots doctors appointments since being home from Liberia. He gets to choose someone to go with him each time and we always have fun and get a little treat. The first was a broken arm he got from falling off a bed. Then pneumonia and another broken arm and then the seizures started. Since then it has just continued. He is still having seizures but is on meds to try and control them. A concern was that his heart was beating irregularly, so this last week we went to the cardiologist and they ran a bunch of tests and we went home with a heart monitor. We haven't heard about the monitor results but all the tests came back with somewhat inconclusive results. He has a very irregular heart beat but that could just be normal for him. We would need to have an EKG WHILE he was having a seizure in order to see how his heart did then. Since his seizures aren't very common(he's only had a total of 6 in the last year) there is nothing we can do.

So that is Isaiah in a few paragraphs!
After reading over this post it is very choppy and I am sorry for that!

Another Kelly update

In my request for writing topics, someone asked for an update on Kelly so I thought I would post on for you all. I talked to Kelly on Monday and he sounded great. His white blood count has been dipping low but he hasn't acquired a fever with it and has been able to stay out of the hospital. He hasn't missed any work except for chemo appointments and says he is doing really well. Kelly and Laura(who just married last June) planted their first garden a few weeks ago and Kelly was like a little kid talking about it. He told me it was like they had found out they were pregnant when they saw the first shoots spring up out of the dirt. It makes me happy that Kelly and his new bride can find such happiness in little things:)

Kelly had a PT and CT scan last week and he is still waiting on an appointment with his oncologist to find out the results. He called his doctor and he told him that if there was something wrong, he would call Kelly. So, we are praying for NO phone call! Honestly, I am seriously praying for a complete miracle. For them to sit down and say, "Well, we have no idea where the cancer went but it is not there anymore. It's a miracle." How awesome would that be! But we serve an awesome God who can do that with just a thought!

Have a good day today all you bloggie friends. I hope you are all doing well. Tomorrow I will be writing about my little man, Isaiah. Stay tuned!

A few good ideas..

A handful of people have helped me out with some ideas to write with. Not a whole lot but I can work with it! I decided that over the next few weeks I am going to highlight one of my children each week and write about them in a blog post. I have already done Sarah, so later this week I will start with Isaiah and work my way down... And for the others, I will write about your ideas too when I can find the time, I promise!

Writer's block

I want to blog, I do. However, it seems that each time I sit down to blog there is nothing that seems blog worthy to me. What would you like me to blog about? Anything specific you would like to know or hear me talk about more? Any ideas? I need HELP!

We've been busy!

On Monday, Jonah bucked up the fallen oak tree. LOTS of work and some scary stories about ant colonies attatcking while he was cutting. But the slash is burnt now and some good oak firewood for next winter is drying out.


I LOVE this picture. It seems I have a thing for piles of firewood



Isaiah wanted me to take a picture of him pushing Judah in the stroller. Judah loves being pushed in the stroller and would sit there all day, strange boy:)



And because Isaiah and Malakai are never far apart, Kai ran into the picture and demanded one be taken with him too.



This little boy is content to play with a stick or acorn all day long.


Playing with sticks and sitting in the dirt is so much fun!



This is Justus' "oh-I'm-so-cute" look. I would have to agree...


My sweet little bear having so much fun. I adore this boy!



I was trying to take a picture of the new bon-fire area from far back and Isaiah decided to stop and pose for me. This used to be the small cedar grove that the kids loved to play in. Now it is all cut out and is a nice flat area to play in. We are glad that we cut it out, it is SO beautiful.



The bonfire area close up. This was a spur of the moment decision to make this. Jonah had cut some pine rounds on Monday and they were perfect to put around this area. Bon-fire parties, here we come!



We talked about maybe making some benches using some of these rounds and some other pines that need to be cut down because they are dead. We already fill up more than half the circle with just our family.



Sarah, obliging her Mama with a picture, while she is working on cleaning up to go home.


And just one more, cause she's so beautiful.

We were on our land every single day during Jonah's 5 days off except Sunday. Yesterday was amazing. Relaxed day, burning slash and sitting around the fire roasting hot dogs. The kids found some new climbing trees with the cedar grove gone and stayed in them most of the day.