RAIN!!

As I am writing this blog it is pouring down hail. I am a fan of rain, every once in awhile, but not this much. We had a good week of being able to go outside and play, so once the rain started I had to explain to the kids that we couldn't go out. After Aurora begged me all day, I decided a little rain never hurt anyone. So we bundled them all up and headed outside in the rain. I did put the kids in raincoats and please don't tell me that makes us not true Oregonians. You change and clean 4 kids that are soaking wet and you tell me you wouldn't put on their raincoats. Plus they all look so darn cute in their raincoats. When they are older, by all means get soaked, but until then, sweater on, check. Raincoats on, check. Socks on, check. Boots on, check. And outside we ventured.







Even Ichiro enjoyed the rain.


I am convinced that this is all the rain that gets saved up when we say "Rain, Rain, go away. Come again some other day." Face it, we are all guilty and maybe we will think twice about saying it again. :)

Mommy Quotes!!

I love good quotes, so I am going to share some of my favorite quotes about moms. I love being a mom and I am blessed to be able to stay home with my children and raise them. Don't get me wrong. It is hard work and there are days I think I might go crazy, but the good totally outweighs the bad. The love a mother has for a child is amazing and you never truly understand it until you become one.

"If you don't believe in love at first sight, you haven't given birth."

“Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs in my field, since the payment is pure love.”- Mildred B. Vermont

“God could not be everywhere, so he created mothers.” - Jewish Proverb

"Any child can tell you that the sole purpose of a middle name is so he can tell when he's really in trouble."- Dennis Fakes

"I'd like to be the ideal mother, but I'm too busy raising my kids." - Unknown

"We spend the first twelve months of our children's lives teaching them to walk and talk and the next twelve telling them to sit down and shut up." - Phyllis Diller

“When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.” – Sophia Loren

“Every mother is like Moses. She does not enter the promised land. She prepares a world she will not see.”- Pope Paul VI

Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children. ~Charles R. Swindoll, The Strong Family

There is only one pretty child in the world, and every mother has it. ~Chinese Proverb

If nature had arranged that husbands and wives should have children alternatively, there would never be more than three in a family. ~Lawrence Housman

Where do I go to vent? Here of course!

So today our family blog will be taken over by politics. Yes, this mother of 4 cares deeply about politics. Only expletives come to mind when I think of the current state of our government. And even more expletives come to mind when I think of the American people allowing this nonsense to go on. For one, most of the people that voted for Obama are now regretting it. Thanks for coming to the party too late. Your regrets aren't going to get this man out of office. There will be no re-do or re-vote. Until 2012 we are stuck with him. So you want to know what you can do? Vote some republicans in to the senate and house of representatives to balance out his power. If you don't care for what Obama is doing, then this is your only option. The republicans will not allow him to pass asinine bills. They will stop him. So what else can you do? Donate money of course. I already donated some money to Rand Paul in the Kentucky Senate race. I would hold off until after May, when they have their party representative. They are still in the primaries, so you may be wasting your money. Once the candidates are announced, feel free to give and give some more. Because like it or not, money makes a huge difference in close races.
I am not going to sit around and wait for Obama to bankrupt our country. I have 4 kids that would love to grow up in a country that is still free, still thriving and still here. The path we are taking now is a very dangerous path. They are slowly stealing all of our liberties. Pretty soon they will be coming in to your house and tell you how to raise your kids, and what you should and should not eat. I don't want the Government to control my life and I would hope you would feel the same. We let President Bush take away some liberties with the patriot act. We allow our government to tap our phones and read our emails. I am sure, little old me, is probably on some government watch list for my views. I am not going away. I may not be able to do much as one person, but if I could ignite the fire in one other person, who ignites the fire in someone and so on, then I will have made the difference.
Obama has been full of lies from the beginning and they are starting to fall around him like a house of cards. I have no doubt in my mind that he will be a one term President, that is if the Republicans can get it together and give him a decent opponent. I am pulling for Ron Paul, but I do realize he is up there in years and is reluctant to be President, I know I would be. If not Ron Paul then someone that shares his ideas. We need a true conservative, not a fake one. If they decide to put up another fake republican, I will once again cast my vote for the Constitution Party.
One excuse for inaction is that God controls every thing, so there is no reason to care. That is a sorry excuse. Some of you are waiting for the end and the return of Jesus. What if He doesn't come back in your lifetime? What if He is hundreds of years away from His triumphant return? We don't know and we can't use that as an excuse to not protect our families from an intrusive government. What if our founding fathers decided not to fight? Who the heck knows where we would be now.
So I am standing up and doing my part and I invite you to join me.

http://www.campaignforliberty.com/

I am going to get all preachy on you!

Russ and I have been going through the New Testament of the Bible, which is a first time for both of us. I like to ask questions, lots of questions (now I know where Aurora gets it from). After constantly searching for answers, the Lord reminded me that I am not suppose to have all the answers; He is. I mean He is God, He created me, not the other way around.
When God created Adam and Eve, He gave them free will. He gave them food, water, and everything they would ever need, but that wasn't good enough for them. It was Adam and Eve (and satan) that brought death, sin, hate and unhappiness to this world. So blaming the Lord for all of this, to me, is unfounded.
God sent His son to walk the earth. He was born of a virgin birth and lived a sin free life. That is hard for people to comprehend. But Jesus was God and He didn't have all the deadly emotions that cause us to sin. It would have been a piece of cake for Jesus to live a sin free life. What about when he was a kid? "And the Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him." Luke 2:40 So in layman's terms, He was a child prodigy. He didn't live the life of a normal child.
The question is not "did He exist?" but "was He the Son of God?" To say Jesus never existed is like saying that yesterday didn't exist or Michael Jackson didn't exist. I think that is where most people lose their way. They think that Jesus was a made up story and you just chose to believe if it was a real story or not. He was a real person and even as He walked the earth, people were denying him.
Our job as believers is to tell you about Jesus Christ and then you (free will) make up your mind. We see evidence of this throughout the New Testament:

"Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned." Mark 16:15-16

"Everyone therefore who shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven. Matthew 10:32-33

I would like to think that if I were alive during the times of Jesus that I would have followed Him, but I can't be certain of it. But I believe that what is written in the Bible did in fact happen. All of it. I am so certain that I am betting my eternal life on it. I can't make people believe what I believe, I can't even make my children believe, but I can try.
Free will is apparent, even in believers. Why do you think there are so many denominations of supposedly the same religion? What you non-believers need to realize is, that the way we chose to live our lives has nothing to do with Jesus Christ. Yes, you heard me right. Jesus existed and He wants you to follow Him, I am not asking you to follow me. You don't have to believe in anything I do, just in Jesus Christ. You may disagree with my interpretation of a certain Bible verse, you may disagree with the way I raise my kids, you may think I am a hypocrite, you may not agree with my political opinions, but no one asked you to. I am asking that you believe in Jesus Christ, not me. So please stop using the excuse that Christians are hypocrites, to not believe. We are not perfect and we don't expect you to be. We mess up, sometimes in a big way. We may judge you, but we are doing it out of concern, not hate. We may say stupid things (who doesn't) but this by no means should cancel out Jesus. Jesus Christ will have the final say in your eternal life, I won't.
The Bible holds all the answers we will ever need here on earth. I highly recommend going through the Bible a little at a time and absorbing what you are reading. I would start with the New Testament, but the choice is up to you.
I still ask questions, knowing my answers won't come for awhile or maybe never at all. It is OK to ask questions, because it is what's in your heart that matters. It is how we grow and mature. I don't have all the answers, but I do know who does.

"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." Revelation 22:13

Boys will be boys and girls will be girls; in our house at least.

Who hasn't heard the saying "boys will be boys" or "girls will be girls?" Well this absolutely rings true in our household.
I am by no means a girly girl. I don't wear makeup and would rather wear pants than a skirt or dress. I don't keep up with fashion and frankly could care less about anything fashion related. So when Aurora was born, I'm not sure what I was expecting, but boy was I surprised. This girl is a princess. As soon as she could talk she was telling me about everyone's shoes, dresses, skirts and shirts. She would actually cry if I dressed her in something that she thought "didn't match." She gets excited about clothes and loves to shop. She absolutely loves shoes and notices everyone's shoes. She wants her ears pierced and she wants to wear lipstick. Well I have said no to both. But that doesn't stop her from asking. She constantly talks about her future wedding and the long white dress she will wear. I am thinking we better start saving, because a shotgun wedding in Las Vegas doesn't look to be in her plans. She is obsessed with our wedding pictures and the pictures of us at prom. "Look at your dress mom. I want to wear a beautiful dress like that someday." She changes her outfit at least 3 times a day. She loves to play dress-up and pretend. She is the definition of a girl. She also talked early, which is another characteristic of a girl. Always talking and asking questions. Here is our Princess Aurora:



The boys on the other hand are boys. They love to watch Nascar, they love to wrestle, they love to throw and kick things. They are the very definition of the word boy. They don't like to talk, they are very quiet and observe their surroundings. They throw balls at the speed of light and knock things over. So having a girl first I was quite surprised by these boys. Aurora was content sitting and playing with toys, while these boys were crawling at 5 months and climbing on everything. We actually had to "cage" them when they are younger, and we still have them contained to one room of the house during the day. If I let my boys free, my house would be in complete shambles. They love to copy each other. If one throws his food on the ground so does the other, if one screams so does the other. Now Landon is joining in on all the excitement and I am scared to death of what all three of them could do together. Landon started crawling at 4 months because he is desperate to keep up with his brothers. The twins aren't even 2 yet, so I can only imagine what is to come.



We may have 3 boys and only 1 girl, but Aurora more than makes up for the overflowing testosterone in this house.

Almost 11 years of love. Where has the time gone?

On August 11 of this year it will be the eleventh anniversary of our first date. A lot has happened in 11 years. We got married, moved in to our house, oh and I almost forgot, we had 4 children. And yes we did it in that order. :)
Our first official date was at Division Street Theater, we saw "Mystery Men." I honestly couldn't tell you what the movie was about because I was so nervous. Our first kiss was in the parking lot (romantic, I know) as I was getting ready to leave. And I guess they say "the rest is history."
We dated for 5 years before we finally decided to tie the knot on December 11, 2004. Mainly because I was only 16 when we met and we didn't live in "The Little House on the Prairie" days where you married that young. So we had a nice long courtship.
We had planned on 2 kids, a boy and a girl. At least that was our plan. As you know the Lord had a different one for us. I actually found out I was pregnant with Aurora on our 1st wedding anniversary. That sent us into a whirlwind of babies. Aurora joined the family in August 13 (two days after our 7th anniversary of our first date). The boys joined 22 months later in June and Landon 13 months after that. All of this baby making led us to another important milestone: The MINIVAN. Oh goodness, I did not want a minivan. I avoided it at all costs. We squeezed three car seats in the back of our Subaru. Which we probably would still be doing to this day if Landon didn't arrive on the scene. And you know what? The minivan grew on me, and I regret not getting one sooner. I never thought I would say those words. I did get to keep my Subaru though, which means I get the best of both worlds.
All these years have been an adventure and I am lucky to have had shared them with my best friend. We still have many more adventures to look forward to, or dread. I am still not looking forward to life with 4 teenagers. But when I look forward I always think of the "Growing Pains" theme song. "As long as we got each other, we can take anything that comes our way. Baby, rain or shine. All the time. Sharing the laughter and love." It is so fitting to our life and we often sing it around here.
So here is to many many more years of laughter and love and all that other stuff in between.

What do we do when the temperature goes above 60?

Well after I run around for a half hour trying to find clothes and shoes and toys. We go outside and enjoy the sunshine.

We explore



We roll around in the grass


We store things in our trike


We have races


And we cheer each other on




Then I place them all nicely in their bed for a long nap.

I just left out the screaming, fighting, whining and putting rocks in their mouths part. But I think you get the picture. :)

Diapers and Diapers and Diapers and Pull-Ups, OH MY!

We technically have 4 kids in diapers. Our oldest is potty-trained, but needs a nighttime pull-up when she sleeps. But we have 3 boys in diapers full time. Trevor does show interest in being potty trained but I don't have the time to start. This is all different to me since Aurora was #2 trained when she was 13 months or so. Let me tell you, this is not fun. I am so thankful that my husband shares in diaper duty, otherwise I might go crazy. We fill two grocery bags of diapers, daily. I am sorry if I just gave an environmentalist a heart attack. But I am not going to deal with cloth diapers. I gave it a shot, but it is definitely not for me. I am sure Al Gore would single handedly blame us for global warming.
I have heard potty training boys takes longer and most won't want to start until 3. I have also heard that twins are even harder. Well that would mean we are more than a year away from even starting the potty training process, which means diapers and more diapers for us. Luckily I have found a diaper that I love. Aurora was in Pampers for quite awhile because they are darn good diapers, but darn expensive. I received a Costco Kirkland sample when Aurora was around 10 months old. I immediately fell in love. No leaks, unless it is time for the next size up. So we switched and saved a ton of money. When the boys were born we did Pampers for the first month and promptly switched to Kirkland. I have tried almost every brand of diaper. Luvs, Huggies Supreme, Huggies Regular, Target Brand, All Pamper products and Safeway brand diapers. Oh and my brief experience with cloth.
So I guess if I have to be knee deep in diapers, at least I am saving money and getting a great product in return. I was looking forward to not spending $120 a month on diapers, but I realize that it will just be redistributed to other things as the kids grow.
When our last child is out of diapers, I am going to throw a huge party and you are all invited. See you in 4 years or so. :)

Spring Cleaning

Spring doesn't officially start until March 21, but the spring cleaning in our house has. I started with the boy's room. Going through all the boxes of baby clothes I still miraculously have after getting rid of quite a bit. Most of it is on its way to Good Will and the rest is being sold at a consignment sale next month. It is very liberating to get rid of baby stuff, but it is also extremely sad. I know I am done having kids. I don't want to be pregnant ever again. But getting rid of baby stuff brings up so many emotions. It has been difficult (putting it mildly) having 4 kids in less than 3 years. I love all my children and I thank God for them (because he is the only one I can blame) everyday. But having them so close together doesn't allow me to spend time with them individually. I can't even remember when the twins were babies. They still are babies, but they had to grow up fast because we added another baby only a mere 13 months after they were born. I haven't had the chance to stop and relish in their firsts. I barely remember when they started walking. Most of their firsts happened while I was sick and tired from being pregnant. I also was in complete shock for a couple of months. I also feel like I missed a huge chunk of Aurora's life. I was pregnant with twins when she was 15 months old. I wasn't able to chase her around and sit on the floor and play with her. Now I have 4 kids that want constant attention and I am only one person. Most of my days are spent keeping them fed and clothed. There isn't much time for much else.
I know the Lord gave me these children for a reason. I know he has a bigger plan for our family then I had. So I am going to continue to spring clean my house and remember Ferris Buellers's words: "Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." I know I just need to stop, slow down and take in every moment the Lord has given me with my children. Life is so short and I don't want to waste it in regrets.

Aurora


Wyatt and Trevor


Landon

Homeschooling?

Russ and I have been going back and forth with the decision to home-school Aurora. Well with a lot of prayer and discussion we are going forward with homeschooling. I will start this September with preschool and feel it out. I don't really have a problem with public school (except for middle school). I know she would get a perfectly good education in the Reynolds school district. I did. But I feel I have been lead to home-school, even before I was married or had kids. I can't really explain it, but it feels right and we are going to roll with it for now. Of course this would naturally mean that the boys will be home-schooled as well. That brings a little anxiety to me. All four of our children are different and learn in different ways. It will be a challenge but it is a challenge I am willing to take on.
Who knows maybe after a year of preschool I will change my mind and send her off to Margaret Scott. I am just going to continue to pray and let the Lord lead me.

OK now we made the decision, so why don't I tell people when they ask about Aurora going to school? Why does homeschooling feel like a 4 letter word. You should see the looks on some people's faces when I mention that word. They are lead to believe that I am going to raise a bunch of social misfits that can't function in society. I went to a high school with over 2000 kids and I will say that public school does not automatically make you a social genius. Like everything in life it depends on the kid. Some kids thrive in public schools, others don't. Some people would love to go back to high school and do it all again and some people (me) would rather just leave those years behind.

So with all that said we are giving homeschooling a spin. Prayers would be appreciated. :)