The Rewards of Obedience

For 2 days now these children have been obedient! We work on obedience ALL THE TIME! It's constant and rather exhausting for me to continually be teaching and training them, but there is some reward and I've been seeing that the last two days. We have a long way to go and definitely still struggle with the "obey with a happy heart" part of this, but they're learning. I saw some instant obedience out of Nathan today that was really great!

So today we all ventured out! This is how my cart looks as we travel through Target! Everyone finds a spot and hangs on. You'll notice my cheerful son there on the right hand side of this picture (haha) he did not want his picture taken or his hair combed.
Can you spot McKenna?

I love our Chick-fil-a play area, although we never go there! Today we went just to play (not eat)!

These two were exhausted and sweaty by the time we left! And everyone played sooooo nicely!

McKenna loved it and screamed when I picked her up and put her back in the stroller!

My favorite picture of the day! God has given this little man some real joy deep down in his heart!

Abby is such a good "big sister" as she likes to call herself!

And then we headed to Sams Club! We didn't buy those giant stuffed animals but they did provide great entertainment while we were there.

Someone talked me into buying these, although I have a feeling it didn't take much convincing! We were having a very obedient day and good things happen when you're obedient!

Yup, she liked it!

When Nate took a bit of his he said "Wow, they are good." As if he couldn't tell that just by looking at them!

He's the one who spotted them from the cart!

FYI

We don't expect perfection around here! When you're potty training and you make it to the bathroom but just don't get your undies down in time, it's okay! In fact, it's even okay when it happens two days in a row because when you're making an effort, it counts! When you're doing your best, that's all I expect! BUT when I find McKenna crawling around in the potty accident because no one listens to my "no babies in the bathroom rule" I can no longer promise that I'm not going to make somebody cry!

A Blustery Day

Today I'm cleaning (like I will be everyday until this house is SOLD) and I'm loving on these four amazing little people! A blustery day couldn't keep us inside! Abby and Chrish have been outside for almost three hours. Remember how I love Mondays? Well, I do! I love it when they all have had a chance to miss each other and when they just love being together! Today is one of those days! 20 more minutes and Em will come strolling up the sidewalk! I can't wait!

We Did IT!

It's OFFICIAL!! I cleaned my house to perfection hide all our junk in various inconspicuous places, straightened up a bit AND we listed our house today!
Okay, so I also refolded every item in our linen closet...
and got out the brand new white towels that I won't actually let anyone use :)

You'd want to buy this house right?Our realtor loved our counters! And I'll admit, they've grown on me and I no longer regret our resurfacing decision!
Now how on earth am I going to keep my bed looking like that? Do you have any idea how many little people get in my bed all the time? For some reason it's a congregating point for book reading and snuggle fests.
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I'll be honest, I had a few regrets as we signed those papers. What really didn't help is that it's a rainy day today so our realtor couldn't get any good outside pictures. Well, you know me the picture fanatic! I assured her that I could just pull up a few pictures of the outside of our house and I would email them to her until she could take the ones she wants. Well, this afternoon as I was digging for pictures I got totally teary looking at pictures like this :




Or THIS

(Christian's first birthday)

And THIS

(My train boy would make a train out of everything)

Or THIS

(Emma's first day of first grade)

Or THIS

(Baking cookies with Abby in the kitchen)

And THIS

(McKenna coming home for the first time)

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So tonight I'm putting all of my FAITH in the Lord and asking Him to order and guide our steps. I have no idea what's going to happen in the next few months. No idea when or if our house will sell. No idea where we'll end up living. Will we buy? Will we rent until we find what we want to buy? So many unanswered questions, but somehow we feel like God led us in this direction. So we're going to go with it for now and just see what He has in store for us!

((Deep Breath))

Here we go!

I've Missed THEM!

Look who showed up on my doorstep Friday afternoon!! Boy have I missed her! She went to preschool everyday this past week (since I was sick) and she's doing so great! Amy had a parent teacher conference and Abby's teacher couldn't say enough good things about her! She is blossoming into this incredible little person! And she's just so dang cute (I'm lovin' these haircuts Nikki)!
And I can't say enough about Emma! She is definitely 8 going on 15! When she got home on Friday she played with McKenna for an hour while I took a nap! She didn't have to, but told me she wanted to so I could get better! I just want to box her up and keep her just the way she is. I don't want her to get one minute older. She's growing up too fast! She was the only person in her entire class to make it to list 2 for spelling this week. That probably doesn't make any sense to you, but I'll just tell you that it's a big deal. AND she only missed one on her math test. BUT here's the best part; she got out her math test and wanted to work on the problem she got wrong. A few months ago I would have had to force her to do that, but she did it herself and figured out how to get the correct answer two different ways! Oh how I love that girl!!
And I had to include this picture! I know, I know, I with you! I can't stand all this cuteness either!

Hmmm...

Well, this is a first! I wrote a really great post, pictures and all, and blogger lost it. I mean it's completely gone, as if I never wrote it. I can't find it anywhere. I've been blogging for a year and a half and this is the first time this has happen. I can't figure it out :( Fellow bloggers, has this ever happened to you??

Just Us Girls

Oh my word, this house is quiet! It's the strangest thing! Christian was thrilled to head to Grandmom and PopPop's house today. He talked to Grandmom about it this morning and immediately started packing his bags! I'll admit, it was just a tad bit hard to put him in the car, buckle him up, kiss him and wave goodbye. BUT McKenna is loving all the attention she's getting and I'm enjoying the quiet! AND I did not cry (just for the record). So it's just us girls having a lazy night together! Just what we both needed!

A Different Kind of Vacation :)

Well, I am getting a little vacation in after all, just not the one I had planned. We did NOT get to go with Ryan to this fabulous little place this week. Ryan is there right now and tried to convince me that it wasn't that great after all. Sorry honey, I'm just not buying it! But my mom is here with me. I'm still super sick and I couldn't have made it through today without her. My doctor has been trying to figure out what's wrong with me because I've been sick since Saturday and not showing any signs of improvement. I don't think I've ever been sick like this before. It's all in my throat. My throat is so sore it feels like it's bleeding, thus making my ear feel like they're about to rupture. I can't even swallow my own spit without cringing! Sorry if that was too much information. And then there's the on and off fever and chills. And my throat also feels like it's closing in on me. Not fun! On Monday I was so sick and shaking uncontrollably and Emma had just gotten home from school. I told her I had to lay down and she would just have to take care of McKenna for me. And she looked at me with these scared eyes and said, "Is this when I should call 911? This is an emergency isn't it?" Poor girl. I think I scared her to death! She didn't call 911, she called her mom instead and told her to hurry up and get home! It was bad!

Tuesday I had to drag my dear children to the lab for some blood work. I thought it would be good for Christian to watch me give blood so he would know it's not something to be scared of. He gaged and almost threw up watching the blood come out of my arm. Not the reaction I was expecting. Tuesday night I was in so much pain I almost went to the ER, but instead I just took a pile of meds and suffered through the night.

This morning my doctor basically had me convinced that I had MONO. Ugh! That scared me to death. This time they sent me to the hospital for blood work. Suddenly a virus didn't sound so bad! I think I basically prayed for two hours straight while waiting for the results and Praise You Jesus, the results were NEGATIVE!

So the verdict is that I just have a virus and all the sudden I find myself being very thankful for that. I'm on some steroids now and I think they're making a huge difference. I can actually swallow. I've got ear drops, nose spray, Tylenol, Advil, Penicillin, Prednezon ((sp?)) and lots of jello and soup and I think I'll survive this after all! I even splurged and got some potato soup from Panera today. Have you ever had it? Yummo!

Tonight when I put my kids to bed I prayed so hard for them, just asking the Lord to put a hedge of protection around them. Asking him to keep them well and whole and strong. Asking him to be merciful to them and to spare them from this awful virus! And asking Him to help them to be patient with their mommy who just can't be super mom right now! Thankfully super Grandmom is here and I do believe she may have taught Miss McKenna how to go down the steps today! I've been trying that for weeks, but Grandmom just may have helped her figure it out!

I'm considering sending Christian home with my mom tomorrow. That would be a first for him. He has never spent the night away from home without me. He's spent the night in our house without me, but not at someone else's house (2 hours away). But I think he can handle it and I think it just might be what he needs right now. He's been very angry and frustrated lately and I think he just might need a change of scenery. I think it could be very good for both of us!

Well, enough of my rambling. Can you tell that I basically haven't talked much in the last four days? I know this was boring and didn't even have a picture! Don't you think posts are so much better with pictures? I do! But really, I've been laying in bed for days, nothing fun to take picturse of other than the amazing amount of laundry my mother did today! Now that was actually worthy of a picture! I totally should have thought of that earlier and taken one! Oh well!

INDEPENDENCE

A wordless post! A picture is worth a thousand words!