Yes, I did!

I was trying to get dinner together. I saw Caleb get the bag of markers/crayons and totally throw each one out on the floor. And I let him. Is it really that big of a deal? At that moment, I decided it wasn't!

Apple Picking - Finally!

We've really branched out in our fruit picking this year! After years and years of strawberries only, we finally found some other places we could pick too! We hit blueberries this summer, and I FINALLY found an orchard for us to go to this fall! We actually had to leave the state and head to NC to do it, but we found a GREAT orchard that came highly recommended by several friends here. It was our last "free Saturday" before flag football season began, so I knew we had to seize the opportunity. The night before, I told David of my plan. He (of course) said "Sure...but you know the day is going to be more expensive than just going to the grocery store and buying a couple of bags of apples." :) I assured him that I was aware, but we were going for the experience :).

We headed out - the orchard was about 2 hours away, so we left around 9 am. Right about the time Caleb normally takes his morning nap. Of course, he talked and played the WHOLE way until we were 5 minutes away. THEN he fell asleep. Sigh.

Since the family ate through ALL the snacks that I had packed for the day DURING THE CAR DRIVE UP, we stopped at a nearby city for some lunch. (Why am I the only one that thinks crackers and cheese can pass for lunch? My family does NOT agree...) We stopped at this little bbq stand that was delicious - even had good southern sides like black eyed peas (which my kids all loved!! - josiah actually was the one that requested them when he saw them on the menu!). They only took cash/check - love these little bitty places! And it gave us the energy to go on up the mountain to the orchard.

We headed out...good thing the place had wagons...I had no idea how heavy the apples would get...or how many we'd pick!

The kids totally loved it. Of course. Who doesn't love climbing in trees and finding snacks!

I had visions of David and I having to hoist kids up in these giant trees all day. ugh. I was pleasantly surprised to discover how low the apple tree branches grow. All 3 of the big kids could get up and down on their own - it was great!

David couldn't resist himself - he had to get up there to get the high ones...those are the best! :)

Caleb kept looking around...at his siblings way up high and at all the "balls" he saw everyone on the ground! :)

An attempt....obviously not a great one....

...but once it again it proves that I was there! :)

It was a pretty hot day actually. I had visions of beautiful fall clothes making for beautiful fall pictures up in the beautiful fall mountains of NC. Nope. The mountains were beautiful, but it was hot and we were all sweaty in our shorts and tshirts! :)

Look at the VIEW!!!

On our way back up the mountain to pay for the apples, David stopped to juggle for some tiring children...

David took the kids over to play on this cute playground they had set up while I paid for the apples

Caleb just goes with it....he's not even freaked out by the fact that his 5 year old brother is dragging him around this playground and about to throw him down a slide...

The cutest pumpkins sitting on the Biggest pumpkins I ever saw!!! And they were real!

I was in line to buy the BEST fresh, apple cider donuts. They made them right there while you waited in line in this little bitty shed. They were unreal. Cake-like donuts made with fresh apple cider and then dipped in cinnamon-sugar. Holy cow.

He has a boo-boo!

Caleb is at the unfortunate age of falling down quite a bit. He's so small, but so quick...and sometimes his feet get ahead of or behind the rest of his body and down he comes. On this particular morning, he fell over and bonked his head. Nothing major...but Callie apparently decided it needed medical attention, because this is how I found Caleb a few minutes later...

She looks rather proud of herself, don't you think? :) This is her guilty but proud face!!!

This one's quick!

Was packing the boys' lunches one morning, turned around, and then look what I discovered at the kitchen table! I guess when you're the 4th baby, you feel like you have to just help yourself!

colors

Callie and I were just looking at her princess coloring pages when - to her dismay - one of the pages with Jasmine on it had her hair colored YELLOW! She was appalled and informed me that it was wrong- that Jasmine has black hair! (I'm sure it was David that did it...I would have never colored her hair the WRONG color! :) ). Then Callie said that we didn't have a brown anymore - it ran out of ink. She got really quiet, and then declared this insight: "Brown matches poop. And Yellow matches pee-pee." What do you say in response to that? I suppose we need to sign her up for some etiquette classes or something!

If you think you want a big family, look at this FIRST!

I LOVE my big family. Adore all 6 of us in our little family. But I'm JUST saying - this is what my house looks like EVERY Monday. It's my BIG laundry day. I put the first load in at 7 am, and the last load is usually done by 7 pm. Then I bring it ALL downstairs after all kids are in bed and I sit and fold it while David & I watch Amazing Race on the DVR. Fold for a few hours and then put it all away the next day. Oh, and I still do another almost-as-big laundry day again on Friday. But Monday has all my sheets and towels too, so it's the biggie!

National Guacamole Day!

This goes out to a few of my friends who are guacamole nuts (you know who you are...). Today's your day! I was printing out a B1G1 coupon for guacamole (bc David is one of those who LOVE it) and found out today is National Guacamole Day! Too bad he's at an all day conference and won't be home until VERYYYYYY late tonight. Otherwise we could have a siesta! (that does mean party right? i get that and the spanish word for "nap" mixed up alot!) :)

Grace

This is quite possibly one of my new favorite songs. Ever. I met Laura Story when David & I went to the music conference in Spartanburg a few months ago. She is the real deal. Amazing, real heart. Genuine passion and love for the Lord. She's young - my age most likely. Only been married about 4 years. Shortly after she got married, they discovered that her husband had a brain tumor. They are still struggling through all that it means, have gone through many a surgery, many close calls with death. But her faith is real. Her love for the Lord is real. Her story is real.

I will be the first to admit that I don't always listen to songs when people post them. Maybe it's my lack of patience. Or feeling like I only had a minute to sit down and check their blog...not 4 minutes to sit through a song. But this one is different. you've got to listen. It's been on my IPOD and I hit repeat...several times...while I'm running. There's not a whole lot of SLOW songs that you can run to - but this one just totally captures me. Every time.

It's a song that resonates. For lots of different reasons. I wouldn't call myself a perfectionist. Or terribly insecure. But I do think that Satan has a "back pocket" type of weapon with women, and moms in particular. Telling us that we aren't doing a very good job. That there are so many others doing SO much better than us. This song speaks God's truth to that.

I have alot on me right now. We all do. There are a few added responsibilities that have come this fall. David is carrying a tremendous load on him. I could very easily be overwhelmed and quit. But I'm choosing not to. Because I'm learning that all He asks of us is to walk DAILY in his all sufficient grace.

Enough talking. Please listen to this. Seriously. I think it will be like soothing lotion on some breaking hearts.

Is it spring already?

Artichokes have a short season (spring...April I think)...and they are only grown in California. So sometimes the rest of us miss out totally, or get pretty pathetic ones. But one random day in September, we got these incredible artichokes that arrived and so you KNOW I couldn't pass it up! They were enormous - bigger than softballs. I paid a pretty penny for them, but they were WELL worth it!

Still Here!

I'm sorry my posts have been so sporadic here lately, but I'm still here! We've just been settling into life. I feel like we are in a good routine now with school and all the "extras". This week has the last of the "start-ups" - so everything will now fully be in gear. The boys are still loving school and are in great routine with that. They started karate back in August and to say they "love" it would be the understatement of the year. They each have class 2x a week, so we've had to be creative with the logistics - thankfully we've worked out some carpooling which helps, and it's only 5 minutes from the house! This week started up AWANA (jacob is so excited to finally get to be a sparkie with josiah!), my biblestudy, and children's choir also!

This morning was the first of biblestudy. After taking last year off, which was the wise decision, but a hard one nonetheless, I was anxious to get back into it. After praying about it for a while, I was able to get approval from the church to lead a biblestudy from my house on Thursday mornings. yippee! This enables those of us that live out "here" to be a part of a biblestudy during the week without having to drive all the way up to church. There is a church down the street from me that has a mother's morning out program from 9-12 noon on Thursdays, so Callie is going there. Caleb is still taking a morning nap, so he stays at home with me and sleeps the whole time! It worked out perfectly today - and I'm excited to be back! There were 10 other ladies that have joined me in this study - we're doing Beth Moore's new study on Revelation and we are excited!! Good to be back!

Children's Choir. It starts Sunday night. And I'm in charge of it this year! David's accompanist has been leading it for-EVER, but when she resigned a few weeks ago, it left a hole for children's choirs. After MUCH prayer on this one, I agreed to step in. I haven't led children's choir since we lived in Memphis. But it is a love of mine - i do SO love to see children engaged and participating in worship. So I'm excited. Quite nervous. But excited. The musical that they are doing for Christmas is going to be fabulous - they're going to love it. If I can just not mess it up!!

So we're off to a big start. I feel like I need about 3 days to catch up on my sleep, but that won't happen so I keep pushing through. My days feel calmer and more productive, but my afternoons definitely feel crazier and busier with 2 in school and all the after-school stuff that we have going on. Flag football starts in a few weeks and that will be one more thing. But I'm thankful. Thankful for so many things. For happy, healthy children. For a wonderful husband that has SO much on his plate (still no assistant....) and yet still loves me so well. For the opportunities that our kids are involved in that are honoring to God! We're winding down to the last chunk of training. David's half-marathon is in November, and mine is in October. I'm definitely feeling stronger these days and working towards getting back in all my pre-Caleb clothes. :)

So I'm still here...don't want you to think I've forgotten about all of you! :)

A HOLIDAY!!!

A day off - from school AND work (well, except for Mom work :) ) - so Jacob picked and we headed to the...zoo! (gasps of surprise...I know...we can't help ourselves...we LOVE it! and the boys don't get to come as much because of school, so we were so excited!)

Feeding the birds is always a favorite...

Today they landed all over us (which Jacob LOVES....)

Don't you love callie's face? For someone who is always in everyone ELSE's face, she didn't want anything in her space today!

A bird landed right on my shoulder...but then I had to reshift Caleb because I was afraid he'd grab that little bird's head and pop it right off!

Callie decided she'd much prefer just drinking her icee (best deal at the zoo in my opinion.....free refills all day....and we TOTALLY get our money's worth out of that one with all 6 of us drinking it!)

everyone was ready for a nap...

looks like a poster doesn't it? we actually have a penguin exhibit and it is fascinating! caleb loved it because the water was right at his level! A fun morning spent with my 5 favorite people! :)