Bathroom new/old

This is our current bathroom. I love the color of it but will most likely keep our new bathroom a more neutral color. I remember when we moved into this house, thinking the bathroom was so small I was almost clasterphobic when taking a bath with the door closed. Now I am thinking taking a bath in our new bathroom will not be as cozy becuase the bathroom is so much bigger. I guess one gets use to what they have! I do love having such a small bathroom when it comes to cleaning! I tired to up load a picture of our new bathroom but it is not working, so just scroll down to when I posted about our new kitchen and bathroom. In the new bathroom we are taking off the wall paper and getting a new ceiling, so it will look different when we move in.This is suppose to be at the top of the post, but I can't seem to move it there.



So after taking a bath and thinking about what I wrote in the previous post, I realized that I probably wrote it because I have been rather 'emotional' the last few days. I can tell that I have more energy now that I am taking iron, but I have also noticed the 'emotional' side of me coming out. Bryan was sweet and watched Pride and Predjudice with me Sunday night. It was the short new one, as that is his favorite. Whenever I get tired and emotional Bryan will pop in either Emma or P&P, we both enjoy these moves and find them quite comical. Bryan understand girls so well, it really amazes me considering he grew up around mostly boys! He is such a great father for his daughters and a wonderful husband for me, but back to what I meant to write! I thoguht I would add a post that is a little lighter, since those reading my previous post probably had no idea what I was trying to say. I really do not claim to be a great writer, I know I am awful at keep my thoughts together, writing sentences, and paragraphs, and everything else. So please be patient with me and just enjoy the pictures!

Baby......and some thoughts....

I finally felt the baby move a few nights ago while lying in bed. Some woman seem to feel baby way before I do, though the books say it is impossible to feel it before 16 weeks. I have heard woman say they felt their baby move at 9 weeks! I have a book that goes week by week telling how the baby is growing and all the changes, I had read it the night I felt the baby move and was in awe of how big our baby is getting! I think it is finally sinking in that there really is a baby growing inside of me. I was struck for the 5Th time with the awesomeness (if that is a word) of how a baby grows and develops. How much they change in such a short time. Right now our baby is as big as my hand and it is fully developed on the outside, I know there are some organs and things that are still developing, but it looks like a baby complete with fingernails and toenails. I look at my other children and how much they have grown, especially Cassia, they learn so much in the first 2 years. Cassia has changed tremendously since I got pregnant and I am sure she will know even more by the time the baby comes. It is just amazing how God designed our children from nothing to what they are now and will become in the future. I am so excited to see how my girls grow and mature and to see their relationship with God do the same. I know it is our responsibility to help shape our children's character, but so often my own character is changed by them. Being married helped Bryan and I understand the relationship between Christ and the Church that is talked about in the Bible and having children helps us understand Christ as our Father and just what 'child like' faith is. I enjoy thinking back on what I was like 8 years ago and what I am now and to think of what I will be like in the future with God still working in me! Each pregnancy has been difficult in it's own way, but also each pregnancy has taught me so much. Moriah's pregnancy was the most life changing for me, it was during that time that I learned more about true Faith in God. Hence the reason Moriah's middle name is Faith. I feel like God has something more for me to learn this time around, I think He is still working on me, in what and for what I am not sure.
People seem to think that I come by mothering naturally that I am a patient, sweet mother, or maybe that it is just easy for me and that is why we have children close together and a bunch of them. This is so far from the truth, I am not patient or sweet, yes, I try to be. I do not come by it naturally, and I never dreamed of having children this close together. I am rather nervous about adding a 5Th child to my already busy and life. But my life is not about me, it is about glorifying God and enjoying Him Forever! Being a mother continues to teach me about living a selfless life, I am not selfless, but I am working on it. God keeps showing me areas that I need to work on. Do I think that I am better then those who have less children, NO! It is only by God's Grace that I do what I do and that our children Love Him.
The purpose of writing all this is not to benefit anyone reading this, it is to give me encouragement when I look back on it. This blog is like a journal for me to help me remember what I was thinking and how God is working in my life. Bryan and I were talking about people in our life, who's lives have not been filled with happiness, who have chosen a different path then us, it did not give us a sense of thinking how much better we are, but it really humbled us and made us see that it really has nothing to do with us but instead what God has done in our lives! So my reminder to myself is to Give God the Glory and again I see this and feel this when I think of the life inside me and the lives entrusted to me!

A Family Picture

Here is a mommy who is so happy to be 'alive' again and spending time with her girlies!!

We had a church picnic/bike ride back in September. I was so happy to be feeling well enough to go, though that Saturday ended up being a very cold one. We had a lot of fun and Victoria got to be in her first 3 legged race, egg toss, potato sack race, and potato on a spoon race. She had a lot of fun. The girls didn't make it for the entire bike ride, but they did their best. Anyhow, when we first got there my mom snapped some pictures of the girls and me and the whole family. We are trying to make up for the lack of pictures in August. To be exact we took NO pictures in August! I thought you might all enjoy seeing some family pictures!

Old Bedroom....New Bedroom

I have been going around cleaning up our city house and taking pictures so that we can remember our old house and all the memories we have had here. So I thought I would do a post that had our current rooms and then what our new rooms will be. So I am going to start with the girls room upstairs. A room that their daddy worked very hard on. There were no walls (as in no drywall, it was just studs), no insulation, and no plumbing, but Bryan turned it into a wonderful bedroom, bathroom, and walk in closet. We have truly loved this room and I am sure we will miss it. Here is the view coming from the stairs. I will confess that before I cleaned up this room you could hardly see the floor, it had really gotten out of hand. The girls enjoy getting blankets out of the cedar chest and making beds on the floor.

This is our 'Polly pocket' play area. I love it because it keeps all those little pieces together. They do fall down the stairs sometimes, mostly when Cassia gets into it. I will miss this special area and I think the girls will too!

Moriah's bed, last year we bought all the girls quilts. You can see they all have their baby quilts that I made on top of their big quilts. This is the same bed I slept on before marrying Bryan!

Victoria is on the top bunk and Alicia the bottom. We got these bunk beds with the mattresses for $50. They fit perfectly in their room since it slops. We bought another set of bunk beds, they are already at the new house, we paid $200 for them, but they are nicer and newer and have a drawer on the bottom. Alicia will probably sleep on the top of the new set once we move.

The girls own bathroom! We will be going down to one bathroom, but it will still be close to their bedroom.

The other side of their room. I love the color, it is so bright and cheery! I bought 5 different different yellows and mixed them together and this is what we got!

The walk in closet! Usually this room is a disaster and I must say I am really looking forward to NOT having this room any more. The girls can't seem to keep it clean, but we have cleaned and re organized so now that I am feeling better I hope to keep it up!

The other side of the closet.

A close up of the railing and this side of the room. Notice the Rubbermaid container sitting

by the stairs ready to go to the new house!!

Look what I found!! I cute little girl, but don't worry we are going to take her with us!

Now onto the girls new bedroom! Imagine all the things that you just saw in the above pictures and cram it all, plus another set of bunk beds into the following pictures!! :-)

This is the way the Mrs. Brooks had the room. In the corner in this picture, you can't see it, but there is a big crack down the wall. We think there might have been a door there leading to the bedroom next door.

The other side of the room!

So can you picture all the stuff in there!! :-) Well, I guess that not ALL that stuff is going in here, like the cedar chest, that big mirror, the rocking chair, and all their hanging clothes. But I think it will still be full! I have wonderful plans for this room and all the other rooms in our new house!

The girls would like to paint their new room pink, I am thinking of going with a very soft pink, but we will see! We have to wait a few weeks for the plaster repairs to get down and then I can get in there and clean, then paint! And we can't wait to move in!! :-)

Stay tuned for the rest of the house!!



Note: It is a little busier around here taking care of 2 properties. Bryan had to cut grass at our new house and it takes 3 hours there, compare that to the 15min. our current yard takes!! :-)

Some New House Pictures.........

This is our big barn! I love this barn, because it looks so country! My plan is to get a family picture in front of it before it falls down. If you look closely the right side is coming down. Mrs. Brooks (owner before us) told us that there was a tornado a few years back and it knocked the foundation out. So the right wall is sitting on a crooked foundation. We really don't expect this barn to fall down anytime soon and maybe in a few years will have it taken down, but in the mean time I will enjoy its beauty and we will store unimportant stuff in the left side. Behind the barn are some beautiful old trees and a hill going up to the barn that we hope to toboggan on this winter.
The yard in front of the barn is our side yard it is very flat and long and will be perfect for soccer, baseball, and any sport. Maybe one day I can finally have my dream of a back yard skating rink!! :-) I am very excited about all the hours our family will spend in this yard!

Here is our one and only bathroom that is on the second level. It is much bigger then our current bathroom. Notice the lack of shower! Bryan is enjoying his last few weeks of taking a shower! There are no cupboards in the bathroom but in front of the toilet Mrs. Brooks had a dresser as you can see and I have a big cupboard for there that will fit all our bathroom things. I think I am going to get a lot of exercise going upstairs a hundred times a day to use the bathroom and to wipe kids bums!!

We do plan on adding a bathroom on the main level, but that probably won't happen for atleast a year due to a needed new roof!

Now I will show you my lovely kitchen!! This is the pantry which is under the stairs going up. The kitchen is just off the back entry, so you have to go through it to get to the living room and dinning room. To the right of this picture is the door to the back entry. To the left of the door is the doorway to the living room.

This picture is taken from the doorway of the living room. So to the left of the stove is the door to the back entry. Mrs. Brooks has a table and chairs in there, but I will only have a table for working on as the counter space is very limited. We are also switching the stove and fridge around as our fridge does not fit where the current one is.

Here is the other side of the kitchen. This picture is taken from the doorway of the back entry. So to the left is the dinning room and the right is the living room and the pantry is just behind the door that you see here. That is all the counter space I have about 3 feet! There is no dishwasher, I will probably really miss that, but am also looking forward to some time spent with the girls doing dishes. The cupboards go all the way to the ceiling so there is more cupboard space then our current kitchen, but I will need a step stool to reach.

That ends the 2 most important rooms in the house, or at least the rooms that I will probably spend most of my time in! :-) I will try to post some more later of the living room, dinning room and bedrooms. There is a really cute closed in front porch and a play room on the back. There is a lot of storage room in the basement. There really are no closets anywhere except the baby room. We were going to take them out, but decided to leave them as the crib should fit. That way we don't have to buy wardrobes right away. I have this dream (actually I have been having a lot of them lately) of having all antique furniture for the bedrooms so I kind of want to keep my eye out for it. antiques are usually pretty expensive so it will probably take a long time.

I have been spending a few nights dreaming about decorating this house and where everything is going to go. I find it funny how when I think about living there the children are always happy and wanting to help we are such a cheerful family enjoying our country property. The kids are never hollering and running around like crazy kids, they never fight or argue! I never get annoyed and push them out the door but instead we all sit around doing things as a family! :-) A girl can dream right!! I am sure the reality will be different, we are all sinners right! But sinners saved by grace, and hopefully His grace will see me through those long winters living in a small house.

Summer Vacation......

I am going to go down memory lane, these pictures are from the beginning of July and with the cooler weather we've been having lately it seems like a long time ago.
Bryan and I packed up our children and headed to Atlantic City, New Jersey home of the board walk and all the streets that the Monopoly game is named after. Yes, we went down all the streets on the game, it makes sense to us now why some of the places are worth more then others after driving down them. I should have been more 'with it' and taken pictures of the different streets, but alas I am a mother of 4 and we were on a weekend trip that was 12 hrs. each way. We were in the City for a Conference, not gambling or shopping. Atlantic City reminded us of Las Vegas (though we have never been) only smaller and not that clean. It was interesting how one street would have gorgeous houses on it and the next dumpy unkept homes. There was a huge contrast. The conference we went to was very small and the people wonderfully friendly. We even came home with a few bags of new and used clothing and tons of food. We were pretty much the only white people, and I have to admit I was a little nervous about that as I really never hang around black people. We were completely put at ease and felt so comfortable with the Bible believing, Amen and Hallelujah saying folks of a small Baptist church in a small version of a 'Sin City'. The Sunday after our vacation, I was really missing their Amens and Hallelujahs and caught myself thinking it throughout the service! It really is such a blessing to step outside our 'traditional' idea of church and our own denomination or those like it and see how others serve and worship the same God. We didn't agree with all that was said that weekend, but we did come away with a better understanding of how God can work in different people and a greater desire to Serve. The above picture was during our lunch stop on the way to Atlantic City. We got of the highway and drove around looking for a park for the kids (and Bryan and I) to stretch our legs and enjoy a picnic lunch. We ended up at a playground that was built for handicapped children and children in wheel chairs. Since there was no one there we hoped they wouldn't mind us playing on it. The girls had so much fun running around.
We were thinking about driving through the night on the way down but around 11 pm the girls started waking up and getting fussy. We decided to pull over and get a hotel for the night. I had dressed the girls in pj.'s for the drive and Bryan and I just slept in our clothes, all we took into the hotel was a playpen for Cassia and the travel case with our toothbrushes. The next morning we enjoyed a free breakfast and visited with a bunch of older people who just loved watching us with our our girls. One couple was on their way to see their grandchildren and they said that seeing us made them even more anxious to get to their destination. Another lady shared with us that she has a daughter or granddaughter who wants 12 children, I don't think the lady talking to us was overly excited about it! :-) An older man, just 'had' to have a picture of our family to remember us by, because 'we have such beautiful little girls'! We really enjoyed and are very use to all the comments and smiles that we get, but really it is only 4 not 14 children! Is it the fact that they are all girls and we are still smiling that makes it so odd, or is it really odd for a couple in their right mind to have 4 children and still be smiling! :-) I guess I am just so use to large families that 4 doesn't seem 'large' to me. But anyhow, I enjoy making people smile and if all it takes is 4 beautiful girls, then that is wonderful! The very first thing our girls wanted to do when we got to the hotel was go SWIMMING!! By all means isn't that the exact reason we drove 12 hrs............ :-) The girls were also thrilled to see that there was NO hot tub, then "mommy, has to go swimming with us" they said! Okay, so the last time we went to a motel with a pool and a hot tub, I hung out in the hot tub while daddy was a good daddy and went in the pool! So this time I did swim! It was hot out and the water wasn't too bad. The floaty thing that Cassia is in was a last min. purchase that I thought was definitely needed.........well, she didn't agree and soon after this picture she was crying and was taken out never to go back in again. She much preferred being held or playing on the deck.

I love pools with steps, then the girls can enjoy the water without hanging on Bryan and I. They take turns swimming with us and sometimes we actually get to swim alone too! I must say, it really will be a wonderful day when our girls learn to swim and not scream the whole time they are in a pool. Not sure the if the screaming will ever end when Daddy is around, cause Daddy loves to make them scream!

Bryan would pretend to be a shark and go underwater swimming towards the girls on the stairs and the girls would scream and jump out of the water, I really thought someone was going to come out to see what we were doing to our children, but it never did happen!

Here is my first 'brown' baby!! And ain't she a cutie! She loved playing on deck, especially when she found the keys!!

Bobbing up and down in the water, the girls really enjoyed this pool and I really enjoyed that no one else was there! I am so anti-social....but really it is so much easier to enjoy a pool and playground, and back yard when no one else is there. I don't have to worry about what other people's kids are doing and my own girls don't sit there staring at the other kids! :-) Bryan says it is because I was homeschooled, but I am really more social then he is! :-)

You can't go to Atlantic City without going on the boardwalk, so away we went and boy did we make a sight! At one point there we were walking down the board walk with 4 little girls. Bryan had 2 of the girls one on either side holding his hand, one of the girls was pushing the empty stroller and I was carrying one (I won't name names, but you could probably take a wild guess and be right) under my arm just a SCREAMING away. She didn't want to sit in the stroller and she didn't want to hold my hand walking, so away we went with a screaming child. At that point I started smiling and remembered way back when Bryan and I were in Florida together for our 5th Anniversary and we would see parents with their screaming kids and look at each other smiling, so thankful we had left our munchkins behind. Of course we thought we were a lot smarter then those parents with screaming kids! Well, now here we were, the parents with the screaming kids and I bet ya anything there were a bunch of parents walking by us looking at each other smiling and saying how glad they were that they left their children behind! :-) I was not going to let a screaming child ruin our day so we kept walking on, our family of 6 with 4 little girls wearing bonnets, it really was a site to behold! :-)

One of the first stops was going to see the ocean! Of course our girls have no idea what the ocean is or the significance of seeing it, but they were just as excited as us! Ah, children.....they can get so excited over something they have no idea about, you just have to make a big deal about it! Again you just have to imagine what we looked like, we are walking down this boardwalk with 4 little girls in tow towards a bar on the beach. This place is not a place you bring kids.........it is a place that you go to get away from your kids! But we are family people, I mean we do have 4 going on 5 children, we must be a little crazy! I think back on all we put our children through on this vacation and really I am so amazed at how well they did and how much fun and the things they still talk about, it is unbelievable all we did in a weekend, and how much we enjoyed it! But anyhow back to the ocean...............

Are we country folk or what?!! (at least we like to think we are, we will find out soon, if we really are) I love this picture and looking at it I can see why we keep getting asked if they are triplets!

Hiking up the dresses (don't worry all had leggings underneath) ready to get our feet wet! It was so pretty I would have loved to stay longer, but we didn't have time to spare.

Victoria and I enjoyed the waves, as you can see in the above and below picture, a wave surprised us and came up a lot higher then we thought it would. Bryan and the other girls are standing quite a bit back and twice a wave went all the way to them.

The water was so warm, we really enjoyed it. There were a lot of people swimming, just not right where we are. I think there might have been a really strong current there, it seemed to us that the lifeguard kept everyone out of this area. We stayed pretty far back so there was no danger for us. It really was amazing how far the waves came.

You can hardly see him, but Bryan is standing in front of the Bally's Casino. He wanted to take a quick look inside as he remembered this casino in a movie he had watched and enjoyed in his younger days. I can't remember what it was called! The girls and I sat on a bench and did some people watching while eating a snack. I had to make sure we didn't drop any crumbs, there were a lot of seagulls that could detect even the smallest bit of food!

We decided to 'treat' the girls and ourselves to some ice cream since it was very hot out. The ice cream store we chose had a sale on their large, 3 scoops for $3. Bryan and I were going to get the 3 scoops and then get each of the girls a small, but the small was over $4. We were trying to be extra special and not cheap out by letting the oldest 3 girls chose their 'own' ice cream. After the hassle of waiting in line, deciding on what kind of ice cream and paying we found a place out of the sun and free from sea gulls to eat our treat. Alicia took one bite and decided she didn't want anymore, so I was eating hers and mine and giving bites to Cassia. Remember they were all 3 scoops of ice cream, thankfully we had insisted that they all be in a dish and not a cone. It was hot out and the ice cream was melting fast. The other 2 girls did a good job eating theirs and I did my best, with Cassia's help to eat 2 dishes. I hate to waste good ice cream, but I am sorry to say that there was quite a bit wasted that day. I discovered that trying to 'treat' kids under 6 is best done by just going to a park and pushing them on a swing, they really don't understand 'special' expensive ice cream!

Our last day in the City the conference had an out door evangelism time, but since it was raining and the area they had chosen was known to have many passing drunkards, we were advised not to take our girls. There were no malls, everything was outdoors and it was pouring rain. So I found an aquarium to go to, but alas so did everyone else with children that were visiting Atlantic City, it was over priced, small and crowded. The girls still enjoyed it and it was something to do for an hour, I just won't tell you what I paid for that hour!

It was neat that you could put your hands in and touch a lot of the creatures, but true to my girls nature I had no worries of their little finger getting bit off, none of their fingers made it into the water. I think Victoria ventured to try but alas her hand just could not touch the water. They did enjoy watching!

Doesn't my baby girl look so sweet and happy here!! Truth be told she cried almost the entire time. I was a rather frazzled mommy by the time we left that place, trying to keep my girls together and calm a crying baby who wanted to run around not sit in a stroller or be held. This was one of those times that I look back on and and really wonder how I did it! :-) But we survived and I most likely will have many more of those times!

Another one of those great opportunities to actually touch the creatures that swim in the ocean, and all my girls did was watch. Then again, I think I prefer it that way, I didn't have to tell them to be carefull!

That ends the pictures of our trip. We drove home that day with the intentions of stopping around midnight for a motel. The first place we stopped they wanted a little more then I was willing to pay, same with the second. So we drove on but then the motels started not having any rooms available so we drove on and on. Finally we came to a motel that was not exactly super clean looking but really I had 4 little ones and we just wanted somewhere to sleep for a few hours atleast. They had room available and when asked how many were in my party I dumbly replied with "6" and their reply "you will need 2 rooms then" TWO ROOMS they are 4 girls under 6 year old! There was no way I was going to pay over $200 for a few hours sleep so we kept driving. I learned to say there were only 5 in our pary but still there was no room in the inn! We ended up in Niagara falls and still there were no rooms available. So we decided to just drive the last 4 hours and go home. Amazingly the girls slept very well on the way home, it was BRyan and I how were exahusted. The last 2 hours were the hardest we had to pull over twice, but we finally did make it home and I think it is safe to say we will not atempt an over night drive ever again! We arrived home around 8am Sunday morning and since the girls had had a pretty good sleep I called my mom and dad to pick up the girls and take them to church so that Bryan and I could sleep. It worked out very well and by the evening we were back to normal.

All in all it was a very eventful trip with lots of memories, even more then I wrote and took picures of. It was such a blessing to get away with our family especially due to the unknown that I was pregnant and would be out of it for the whole month of August. It is always so neat to see how God works things and guides our plans. We would have loved to have another vacation this year, like a camping trip in our new trailer that we plan on selling, but with me still not feeling all better and packing and moving it doesn't look like it will work out. Hopefully we can get one more camping trip in after the baby is born and before we sell the trailer. We absolutly love our trailer but due to moving and the extra expenses of living in the country we have decided to sell it and maybe in the future get one again. I think it will be back to tenting for us!

That was a lot of fun to look back on these pictures and remember that fun vacation, I love going away, even if it doesn't go the way I planned! :-)

.

Just a little update.............

I just thought I would update how things are going here. We are all enjoying having 'mommy' back to life again. The kids are so encouraging and excited to see me functioning. The first time I drove they were all a little worried that maybe I shouldn't be doing it, but we arrived safely! I am not 'all' better. I still am nauseated most of the day and I get tired very easily. I find a need a rest in the afternoon. I still get sickest at night and if I have a busy day it is worse. I will be so thankful when the nausea is all gone (hopefully that happens). I continue to be in awe and so thankful for all the help we had in the last 6 weeks. I would have never made it through as well as I did without the encouragement and prayers. I have been enjoying some visits with friends that I have not seen in a long time. I started packing yesterday, books, movies, and material. We are getting rid of out tv. so I figure I will just pack up all the videos and dvd's we won't have room to display them. I have them all in Rubbermaid containers so when we want to watch a movie (on the lap top) we will have to go and get it from the basement. I figure the more I do now the less I have to do later. Plus it is fun packing! We are all getting very excited about moving. I keep looking at the pictures I took of the inside of the house to figure out decorating. We were given a free riding lawn mower, that was a huge blessing! We hope to get in the house in October and start moving big stuff the beginning of November. I organized my big freezer so I know what is in there and can start using more of it so we don't have to move as much. It sure is nice to know where everything is when I go down there! :-)
I guess that is about all, we are just so thankful for my health and for this opportunity to move to the country. I know that many people think we are crazy to move to a small house when we are having our 5th child, but we are find with it, even excited! I am happy to get rid of all the extra stuff that we really never use and I hope that having less will make our child more thankful for what they do have.
My baby just woke up from her nap a little too early.......so I better go get her and am hoping she is not too cranky! I still can't take a cranky baby very well.........