Picture Journey of Baby 12 - 8 weeks..and some daybook!

The combo post. Because there's too many thoughts rolling through head to try and convey, make sense of all the joy, right now. And celebrating 8 weeks!



Outside my window....
basketball playing, bike riding, ramp jumping kids.....and a ton of them. And one choice 8 year old boy in total Batman attire darting through yard, jumping tree roots, swinging from branches and hiding behind trees. Looks a little funny to see Batman go running fiercely through yard one way and 3 seconds later go shooting other direction completely consumed in a world unseen.



I am thinking....
that I love 7 clean cut, military styled boys and a tiny bald little baby man. And the 3 girls....I'm just not even gonna take scissors to their hair ever again. It has been decided a professional is needed for all haircuts they receive from this point forward.



I am thankful.....
that I have absolutely every one of my children with me almost everywhere I go. I'll miss these days. Thankful they are so well behaved and such enjoyable company.....that they are so loved and bring such joy wherever we go. So crazily in love with a van full of happy, laughing kids and thankful for the love that is shown to them by so many.



I am wearing....
jeans and a Coast Guard sweatshirt. Kinda boring. However, I do have on 3 pair of socks.



I am hearing....
Christmas music!



I am pondering.....
how I can live solely on beef jerky, mandarin oranges with whip cream, and a gallon of apple juice a day right now. What has been my diet for the past 4 weeks, from the looks of it, will continue to be my diet for quite some time.



I am wondering....
if I could ever possibly get more excited about loving others. How crazy this heart change is. And how is it possible to be so excited about pouring personal money, time and energy into another...to give so crazily to someone else just to love them and know you'll never see it returned??? New windows, new hard floors, new paint, new kitchen counters, new toilets, a yard makeover as we continue the raking and picking up of forest floor. How is it possible to be so entirely happy while raking a million pounds of leaves, bending, stooping, standing over and again to pick up tons upon tons of fallen trees, branches, sticks and twigs? How amazing it is to watch neighbors gather and come to our aid to help, to love on kids, to offer their own personal chainsaws and physical labor to work alongside us. How much fun it is to pick out counter tops for a house that is not even our's, pour into someone's investment that is not even our own, floors that will bless years beyond our stay here, paint that will hide the prints to bless neighbor landlord when he comes to share a beer, yard that will bless entire neighborhood so much longer than our presence here...when they look at this place they will remember the kindness that was shown to them. Catalogs of shrubs and flowers to order, bricks gathered for free from craigslist to pave a trail to front door. How true it is...."Where your treasure it there your heart will be also." How crazy it is to watch deputy landlord's heart so changed along with our's, to come to aid when needed, to love us and each of our children, to want them within his home, and to thank us for the quality friends they've become for his own 2 children. How crazy it is that our house went from dismal, and worsened by horrific attitudes, to the happy gathering place of the entire neighborhood. My heart overflows.

I am reading....
The Book of Kindness.
Free downloadable E-book at this website. Good stuff.
And A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. Always and forever a go-to book when it's time to just have some fun and forget it all.



I am hoping....
that our 2 mile walk, 50 squats and 30 pushups will still get some results. Cause the thought of running right now just makes me sea sick.



I am going....
to try and not puke. There's definitely going to have to be a reprieve from cloth diapers until the 1st trimester lets up.



I am smelling....
nothing pleasant. Except for the bleach tabs in the toilet water. I like bleach tabs....and clean smelling toilet water.



I am noticing...
that when love, forgiveness and kindness are practiced, freedom and joy soon consume spirit and there is an ability to embrace life to its fullest in every extent. Oh that everyone would know, would allow themselves to experience, this fullness of life. Freedom and joy.....such beautiful things. It's a beautiful life. How I hope my children learn these things early in life, that they do not grow bitter by a calloused and cruel world but learn the keys to fullness of life, that true life only comes when death to self occurs. That they would learn so much sooner in life than I have to listen intently, talk less, follow in obedience to what they hear spoken in their spirit, look beyond self, circumstances, the actions and words of others, that their eyes would see farther, their heart look deeper to see the hurt and struggle buried so deeply within others.  That they would learn this concept and embrace it fully, "When I look back on my walk (actually stumble) with the Lord I see that the difficult times were the most productive." Show us how to see what Your mercy sees. Teach us to love the unloveable, reach the unreachable, how to do the impossible.

I am remembering....
the smile on the KB boys face when he saw the van pull in to deliver sandwich, Hershey's and coke again today. Children could not wait to gather gifts for him once we spied him yet again on the corner. He spotted van at stoplight and began smiling from ear to ear before we ever pulled into his little corner of the world where he stood holding sign. How fun it is to watch children clamour to show kindness. How exhilarating the rush that comes when just giving and totally looking beyond self.


"Begin the day with kindness and love,
Fill the day with kindness and love,
End the day with kindness and love,
and you will have a wonderful day."



Life in pics...

Happiness is...waking up to this every morning as he smiles and says "mama" over and again.

Cheaper by the Dozen!

Oh how my heart overflows. How great is our God and His mercy endures forever. I shout it from the rooftops and I sing of His praises all the day. How great is the goodness of our God! It is so overwhelming....I fall to face because of His goodness to us, the lovingkindness extended to our family. What joy there is in finding favor with Him...grace from a God that loves with a greater love than I can ever humanly fathom. Grace...free, spontaneous, absolute, favor and loving-kindness with God. Oh that we would know such freedom. That He has chosen us for this life we live, that we would know Him...that He would take us to greater depths. That though I may gripe and complain and live a life eerily similar to that of the complaining Israelites that I would overcome and still see His glory and choose to believe...choose to stand...choose to live a life of faith. Oh that He loves us enough to require us to push through, build our endurance, to require more of us than we thought we could ever give to learn of His depths, see His works, and know Him intimately....His favor, His grace, His overwhelming love. Know what you believe. Believe what you know. We have encountered faith and courage together and God has proven Himself true throughout the last 13 months of our life...throughout the last 3 years of our life. Who is he that will not believe in the God I serve?? Who is He that does not see his works? Let Him speak out. For I have seen the hand of God work within our lives and that of our children's. The Lord says, "I am the one who rides on the winds. When you are born again you are able to go where God wills and do what He directs regardless of circumstances. You also live a life that is mostly unexplainable in its goodness to those outside of God's Spirit. Know it, believe, act on it."

The wind blows and breathes where it wills. And though you hear its sound you know not where it comes from nor where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. John 3:8

How great is our God. And though our lives may look absurd and directionless at times, though the decisions made be questionable by every world's standard, though people stand and question everything for which we stand and believe, though the world seeks to tear down and destroy what God has done and continues to do within our lives....we serve a mighty God. Oh that everyone would know Him to these depths. What freedom there is that resides on the other side of the last 13 months. The view from the top...it's an amazing thing. The climb....it is nothing compared to the exhilaration of reaching the summit. How worth it all it has been and will continue to be. Though I grow weary, though I grow tired, though the tears may fall by the thousands, and all I see is loss, He comes building and raising up and working wonders within our life. "Instead God chose things the world considers foolish to shame those who think they are wise. And He chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful." 1 Cor 1:27

And as we celebrate the end of yet another season of our life, having walked through trial by fire, we arise stronger and our children know the grace, mercy, love and power of a God that does not fail those who follow His truths, that have committed to live radically for Him, that leave it ALL behind to follow Him. As we reach a place of rest and settle here for a time we rejoice in the fact that sweet Baby #12 will be joining us in June. And yes....we have taken a sweet peek at growing baby and  there is definitely just ONE. Tiny heart beats perfectly in cadence to the rhythm of life with which God has filled him/her. We serve a mighty God who continues to bless, to raise up and Who makes His presence known within the lives who forsake it all and write His truths upon the tablets of their hearts.


Anthems fill the skies with praise,
All your mighty works display Your glory. They tell of Your glory!

We who've called upon Your name cannot be silent.
We will praise! We'll sing it out. Oh, we will sing it out!

For we have seen the greatness of Your glory be revealed.
And we have seen all that you've done and we cannot be still

We will cry out to you.
Your loving kindness and your truth, it has delivered us, You  have delivered us!

Great is your glory Lord! When nations learn of Your ways
they will bow down to You. We will bow down to You!

Into all the world we take the mystery of Your saving grace.
To shine the light into the darkness, for we have seen the greatness of Your glory be revealed!
And we have seen all that you've done and we cannot be still!

We will cry out to You!
Your loving kindness and Your truth,
It has delivered us. You have delivered us!
Great is Your glory Lord
When nations learn of your ways they will bow down to You, we will bow down to You!
Great is Your glory, Lord God Almighty!



Sweet Baby 12, grow in strength and may you learn of His ways early in life. We wait expectantly for you to join us. What will you look like? Who will you be? You have a name already and we wait to hold you, love you and watch you grow. How great is our God. He has added you to our family and we love already.

Lyrics: We Cry Out by Jeremy Camp

And....More Pics!

....until I can carve out a little bit of time to say some words again.

The fun of him being stationed near us. We get to see him in action! You'd have thought when he appeared from building that the greatest celebrity of all time had just made an appearance within the lives of our children. An entire van full of cheering, clapping, exuberant kids watching daddy work. It  may not be a fun job all the time but the servant's heart that resides within every man in this line of work is to be admired. Praying that each of our children do not grow calloused and hardened by the world but grow in kindness and love with a servant's heart, as they watch their own daddy serve the hurting, the helpless and the lonely.

8 months old!!!

Guess she wanted to go.

There is nothing quite like picking up children's friends and making a mass drop off at church with an 80 lb dog unexpectedly along for the ride.

Somebody shared their Nutrigrain bar with a jumping baby. Messy....and a little bit sticky.

It's that time of year again!!

Pushing the display through the store as we shop. We know the employees well and they seemed to think it just as funny as we did. The joy of midnight shopping excursions for egg nog!

To make up for the nasty egg nog experience a few cold nights ago.

For the newly diagnosed, severely hypoglycemic girl. She's awfully proud of her new middle of the night snacks. What we have been told repeatedly is a virus or due to mold is not even remotely close to either of those things. Her regular, clock work like early morning hour puking episodes every night are, in fact, due to maintaining such a high metabolism that her body is burning up the sugar long before morning ever comes. Her blood sugar drops so extremely low at night...in the low 50's... that between the hours of 3:30-5 am hypoglycemic induced vomiting occurs. The treatment....4-8 ozs of juice every 2-3 hours throughout the night to keep her blood sugar up. The good news.....she should most definitely outgrow this and her little body take over the ability to maintain it within a few years. Until then....stocked up on juice we never usually buy. And some cookies for the fun of a late night party! 

Teamwork at its finest. They tried the fork first and then decided the screwdriver fit the hole a little better.

He thinks he is quite hidden

And the reality of his self made hideout

Early morning bed buddies after daddy leaves for work. I go to wake them up and they just migrate to our bed instead. Oh well...I got a quiet shower out of the deal.

She's officially on the team!!! Surprisingly, to have not really played basketball much until neighbors were amazing enough to give us their unused one, she is really good at the game and thoroughly impressed coaches. Looking forward to some basketball!

There is really absolutely nothing that duck tape can't fix. Sooooooo tired of him pulling them so tight he completely pulls the straps off within days of purchase. He now has slip on shoes....thanks to the wonder of....duck tape! He is seriously proud of them....claiming they look like official robot shoes. Works for me!

I am convinced there will never be a cake that makes it all the way to the party night untouched.  At least this one didn't suffer as much damage as the last one.

I just find this so entirely funny.

They finally made peace with each other's existence.

When she's been around kids most of her life.

The mundane of life that rarely gets posted. This would be what the beginning of our school day looks like as we gather to talk of day's schedule and do Bible as a family, before splitting up to do individual studies. 

He lost interest.

After shower races before bedtime