New school year and an education for Mama

I'm not really sure what I'm blogging about tonight, nearly 7 months of sleep deprivation has my brain functioning at a minimal level (I hope my co-workers aren't reading this). Thankfully, changing diapers, nursing babies, making sandwiches, and folding laundry, which seem to take up the majority of my life right now, doesn't take a lot of smarts. I can't believe it but I am now the mother of a first grader, pictured below, oh how old I feel! She was so excited to go back to school and for the most part seems to love her time there. This is the first week of homework, so hopefully we will continue to keep the same positive attitude. We have had some rough afternoons, I think I'm catching glimpses of why people say girls are harder to raise. After many tears one afternoon (from both of us) I realized I can not do this mothering alone, in fact I fail miserably at times. Those eye-opening moments are so good for me, when I'm knocked down from my pride, only to realize my dependence on the Lord in every aspect of my life. 

I wanted to show interest in her education so I dutifully (stupidly) packed up all 4 kids by myself and took them to a PTA meeting and Curriculum night. I get the wrong sensation sometimes at home that my children are actually manageable, when in reality, anywhere other than our home (and sometimes not even there) they are simply not, at least not when we are expected to sit, be quiet, and listen to a person talking. I should say that actually David was the only one tonight that I couldn't contain, the others were really good. He is soooooo 2.     

This is his level. At home, no shirt, super-hero cape on, playing with "E-i" . Why in the world did I think he would have any consideration to the PTA president and what she has to say? She's not talking about candy, bikes, or Diego. I wont forget again. I will find a babysitter or stay home.

As for D's buddy, he was all ready for school too. He's going to preschool 3 days a week and loves it. I also started him in a little gymnastics program at the school one day a week. It was like the excitement at Disney World when I picked him up yesterday, he was in his element. There he was actually encouraged to jump off things!

I finally decided it was time to put D in a big boy bed, and move Eli in with him. Other than his nursery Eli has been sleeping in a girly room, with no complaints, but he was pretty stoked about this move. So far they're doing pretty well, D does wake up earlier but usually they stay up there giggling and playing for a little while before they come downstairs. It's cute, I love watching their relationship develop. 

 I had so much fun with the boys room that naturally I was ready to get the girl's room looking right. I went ahead and set up Mary Jo's bed, even though she only naps in it. I mainly just set it up so I could enjoy it. :)

 As for my little buddy, I can't believe she's almost 7 months old! I took her last week for her appointment and she was a whopping 12 pounds, 14 ounces. Moved up to the 2nd percentile! I kind of like her being a squirt, she's definitely easier to carry around.

 My grandma Nash gave this swing to Sadie when she was a baby and I think about her every time we put a new kid in there. As the others did, MJ loves it too.

 Gotta love the sibling love. I'm sure MJ will drive her crazy one day so for now I'm cherishing these moments, while praying she doesn't drop her. When I was 16 I thought I knew it all, but now as the years go past I realize how much I truly have to learn. My education goals for the year are as follows:

Sadie - learn to read independently

Eli - learn his letters

D - learn to use the potty

MJ - learn to like food and sleeping through the night

Me- learn patience, true dependence on the Lord

Steven - learn to rest (he works so hard, for which I am truly thankful)....and maybe to cook a little. :)

Goodnight! Learn well, everyone.   



Off the chain, yo!

 This might be a long one, although I'm typing on my new tablet so that will help shorten it (no touch screen beats a good old fashioned keyboard). I can't believe this is the last official week of summer, it has truly flown by. We spent a couple of weeks at home in July then headed up to camp for our annual week of junior boys, Steven was speaking this year and I, once again, was the nurse. With 4 kids in tow I worry I don't do a good job but thankfully there were no catastrophes and always some willing arms to hold Mary Jo when a camper needed me. Last year Steven insisted we bring the 4-wheeler, this year I insisted. The boys absolutely loved it. As usual, Sadie quickly found friends and lived it up, as pictured below.

Mary Jo was good, as long as she got her naps in. Here she is trying her best to get Eli's sucker. 



 We love camp, the fellowship and being a part of the Lord's work in these children's lives, it is priceless. I'm so glad my kids get to make memories there, hopefully the first of many!  



We went home for an hour or two after camp and turned right around and drove to Hilton Head for the week with my parent's and my extended DuBose family. It was a sweet week of swimming, bike-riding, and family time. The kids had a ball, Mary Jo got to try out her new strawberry bathing suit. 

Daddy finally got a little time to rest! We shared a beautiful house with my parents, and several other family members, with a spiral staircase to the 3rd floor. My kids were in heaven.

Between Sadie and Daddy sleeping in, Mary Jo's naps, and the number of meals to prepare, we didn't make it out to the beach every morning. It truly is a great playground for kids!

Despite the beautiful beach, my kids love the pool the best. We have a rule that we have to go to the beach first, or we'll never make it past the pool. 

I realized that my kids didn't go anywhere in the car the entire time we were there. Hilton Head has awesome bike trails and we rented this cool trailer (aka the chariot), plus some baby seats, so this was our main mode of transportation for the week. Mary Jo enjoyed it, and it was a guarantee for Eli to take a nap if I took him out about 5pm in the afternoon.

A couple days after we got home Mary Jo had her 6 month "birthday"! I can't believe my baby girl is getting so big (sort of, she's actually still pretty scrawny), but is just getting sweeter and sweeter every day.

Even though there was a million things I needed to do at home last week, I decided to take the kids to Charlotte for a couple days to hang with my Mom before a Charlotte shift, mainly to spend time with her in lieu of her birthday (which we weren't going to see her on).

Here they are having cookies and ice cream outside on the swingset, just one of the things about my Mom that makes her a fun and special "Nana".  

Steven had a speaking engagement last Sunday in Richmond, VA, one of our favorite chapels to visit. There is a nice little apartment in the church that we stay in, and we usually go up early on Saturday to do something fun with the kids. After a friend's birthday party we drove up and went to this old theatre in Carytown (a cool section of Richmond) to see a movie, then walked to a diner for supper and ice cream. While there I noticed something dripping and looked down at Mary Jo's jeans. Yes, it was poop. Out of her diaper, onesie, and down her leg onto my shirt. Unfortunately, that was not the low point of our night. David had seen a preview that day for a movie with dogs in it that ended with one of the characters saying "it's off the chain, yo!" Of course, David started repeating it. That night the kids were wide open, running around the little apartment, as I was trying to get the beds ready and Mary Jo in her pajamas. I was in the next room when I heard Steven say "David, no!!!!".....but it was too late. He had pulled the fire alarm and it worked, very well. Being in an unfamiliar place we kind of panicked, Steven didn't know who to call or the code to turn the alarm off. Sure enough a few minutes later the firemen pull up, in their gear and ready to fight a fire. Here they are, to my kids absolute enjoyment, resetting the fire alarm, while David watches from his Daddy's shoulders.

I have to say I don't see a lot of remorse in this little face. In fact, when the firefighters looked at David and said "Was it you that pulled the alarm?" I'm pretty sure he was a little proud of himself, or maybe a lot. This one we may have to watch a little extra, he is truly "off the chain, yo."  

A Trip Down Memory Lane

One of my favorite summer memories was going to the lake in SC, to the lakehouse my grandparents bought  in 1970. My dad's parents had a house on the same lake, almost directly across from it, and when they were teenagers my dad would swim across the lake to see my Mom, sometimes staying for dinner. My dad's family had a really cool A-frame lakehouse that unfortunately was destroyed by Hurricane Hugo in 1989. Growing up we would come and stay for a week at a time, swimming, riding bikes on the dirt road, eating Grandma's salmon patties and grits for dinner. The furniture that came with the house (in 1970!), a lot of yellow and orange stuff, was a permanent fixture until last year when my dad started fixing it up. This is still what it looks like from the outside.   

The inside, however, has been drastically updated and looks great. 

Daddy is always looking out for me, and the night we were coming he decided that Mary Jo and I would need an a/c window unit to sleep. As a kid I don't think I even realized that we didn't have air conditioning, but as a nursing mama with kids needing naps the cool, quiet room was great. I think there was a baby sleeping in that room 19 hours a day, including David's and Mary Jo's naps. 

They have since paved the road, but we still made many loops around on bikes or on foot.

Thankfully one thing that hasn't changed much is the porch swing. David caught on quickly. 

Sadie and Eli spent hours each day in the lake, so naturally he got braver and braver. The neighbors have 14 grandchildren and a great rope swing that also drops in the lake, so we spent a lot of time with them. Sadie called them her friends. 

Once the boats and waves slowed down David was a much bigger fan of the lake. He does pretty well in his puddle jumper (the green thing), and, like with other things, is way too confident in his abilities. 

Steven had to leave Saturday evening, he was preaching in Charlotte on Sunday then heading back home to work. I gave the kids their only bath in 5 days in preparation for church the next morning, then we were offered a pontoon ride with my Dad's cousin who lives on the lake. Hence the pajamas under the life jackets. 

We didn't see many fireworks on the 4th, but did get to see some that night. The kids were in awe. 

I LOVE summertime, in case you can't tell.

We still have this old fold up cot at the lake that my brother ALWAYS got to sleep on growing up. I remember coveting it but I guess I just gave up on in it and always slept on the pullout couch. It just seemed fair (and safe) that our oldest should get the cot, I'm not sure she appreciated it as much as Byron. 

Eli got the pallet on the floor next to Sadie, and David is clearly excited about the day he graduates from a crib. Mama's just not ready for that quite yet. 

The kids and I spent five full days, and we weren't ready to leave. Our cell phones got terrible reception so I could legitimately ignore my emails, not pay any bills, and just enjoy my little family and my parents. One time I caught myself looking for cute guys on a boat that passed by our dock...one of my favorite past times as a teenager. I quickly reminded myself of my age, my skirt bathing suit, marital status, and 4 children swimming around me. It's funny how places can truly take you back! It was a sweet time then, and a sweet time now. Sadie quickly figured out that, unlike the pool, she could relieve herself while swimming. Once she exclaimed, "I just peed in the lake, that's the best part!" I think I'll end on that. Thanks Mom and Dad for all the work you've put in so we could revive the old lake house and enjoy it, a generation later! Looking forward to many more trips. 

Black eyes, birthdays, and bible conference.

I can't believe it's already July! Our June was kind of busy. After our Myrtle Beach trip we celebrated 2 birthdays in our family - David turned 2 on May 30th and Sadie turned 6 on June 3rd. The next day Eli went to a preschool day camp and I got that dreaded phone call an hour or so later. Providentially, I had decided to forego my errands for Mary Jo to have a morning nap and David and I were enjoying a quiet morning at home, much closer than I could have been to Eli. The sweet voice on the phone had some urgency in relaying the message "Eli's hurt his eye, he's ok, but you need to come." I scooped up a sleeping Mary Jo, picked up Eli (who of course had stopped crying until he saw me), left David at the preschool, and headed out. I didn't know where to take him so we ended up at the pediatrician's office, I was still hopeful for glue.

To make a long story short (sort of) we ended up having the gash repaired at the surgery center the next day by a pediatric eye doctor. All he did was fall on the playground and somehow the muscle above his eye was severed, go figure. All the jumping and climbing that kid does, this was inevitable, and I'm sure not the last time he'll have stitches. He looked so cute in his little "hospital gown." Thankfully it has healed really well and the only real meltdown was when he found out he couldn't swim for a week.  

The weekend after school got out we celebrated Sadie and David's birthdays at Bounce U, we had 24 kids show up and a handful of adults. It was a fun but exhuasting hour and 45 minutes, needless to say I didn't have time to get a lot of pictures. Here is Sadie with one of her classmates.

And this is as still as D would be for a picture. He had a blast. I can't believe my little guys is 2! He is such a joy and makes us laugh, quite often. His talking is really improving and it's so funny to have him repeat everything he hears. My favorite right now is when he sees Mary Jo he lights up and gets right in her face, saying "Hey baby!, hey baby!"  

The next week the kids and I drove to Charlotte for the week so Sadie and Eli could go to vacation bible school at my parent's church. My sweet cousins, Margaret and Charles, came for a visit and we all enjoyed it immensely (and possibly convinced them to only have 2 kids).  

Finally a week after Eli's "surgery" we celebrated by going to my parent's pool, the kids had a blast. Taking them swimming, without extra hands, is just stressful. But going with fun grandparents is great!

Thankfully, Mary Jo likes the water. She will probably see a lot of it this summer!

We had a great time in Charlotte, I got to spend a lot of time with my BFF from home, Julie, as her kids also went to bible school. Steven drove to Charlotte at the end of the week and the next morning we left for our annual Skyland Bible Conference, in Tennessee. It was a great week with Steven's family, lots of fun cousin time, some friend time, and great ministry. Here's my little rascals, sitting still for a brief moment in time. You would not believe the number of pictures I had to take in order to get ONE with them both looking at the camera and sitting still.

And my girls. I still can't believe I have 2 girls! They're quite fond of each other!

Sadie and David each took 2 naps on the way home, Skyland (for my kids, anyways), is not a restful place.
But a great one.

Even Mary Jo was pooped!

Since we've been home we have been trying to catch up around the house with little success. It's probably not a good time for this but I've been reading "100 Days of Real Food" blog and have started trying to cook more naturally and get rid of processed food. One night at the bible conference Eli had 4 bowls of Fruit Loops for dinner, it was kind of a wake up call that my kid's nutrition is lacking, to say the least. It will be SLOW changes, especially for Steven. Sweet man, but he is like the poster child on what you shouldn't eat. He and the kids have done well, at least trying each new thing. I also took the little 2 to the doctor for their check ups. David is 28 pounds, in the 50th percentile, while sweet little Mary Jo is 10-13, just the 1st percentile. She has doubled her weight, though! As her daddy says, "she comes from a long line of squirts". I'm thankful she's teeny. That being said, the clock is ticking on the next time she's going to eat so I'm going to shut this marathon blog down. I'll try to get back sooner. Night!  

The first of many.

We took our first official family vacation as a family of 6. Steven usually rolls his eyes when I use the terms "this is the first time...." or "but this is the last time we'll do this!" usually because there's emotion associated with those statements. However, this time, he was the one to use the infamous words. As I stressed about packing and getting ready for our trip, amidst my first shift back to work, he said "you're stressed about going on vacation? Baby, this is the first of many little family vacations we're going to take, it will be fun!" Well, after this one I hope he still plans on taking more...vacation with 4 kids 5 and under needs another word. The definition of 'vacation' implies relaxation, sleeping in, long leisurely walks on the beach. While we had none of that, we did have a great time!  A few days before we left Steven was asked to speak in Richmond, VA, so we changed plans a little and left on Saturday to go with him, the church is always a blessing for us to visit and has a little "apartment" in the church that the kids love to stay in. Here's a pic of my boys Sunday eating lunch between services. 

 And here's my girls! Matching dresses thanks to my sister-in-law!

 After 5 hours in the car we finally made it to Myrtle Beach! Mary Jo is not a great traveler but she did pretty well, we actually had some time where all 4  were asleep! Poor Daddy had to unload the car all by himself so the kids decided they needed to try on their nametags. I should have made them wear them all the time...I actually lost D a couple times (once he didn't make it off the elevator, and another time he darted into the room across the hall while it was being cleaned). Thankfully neither time lasted too long so I didn't have time to panic. It has caused a couple nightmares, though! 

 The weather wasn't great so we spent most of the time in the indoor pool, which the kids loved. I tried my best to get them to swim in the outdoor pool while Mary Jo was napping with Steven and the sun was out (I really could use some sun, as Mama always says "tan fat looks better than white fat"), but they had already been in the indoor pool and knew it was warmer. I put up with whining for the sun for about 15 minutes then finally gave in and gave up on my dreams of a tan. Here's a pic of a little beach time in the rain.

D wasn't quite sure about the sand. 

 Or maybe he was just tired. 

 Mary Jo is such a trooper! 

 Luggage cart? No, to my kids it's a mobile gymnasium. 

 That afternoon we went to Broadway at the Beach and ate at Johnny Rockets, the kids loved watching them dance. Afterwards we got ice cream then let the kids throw darts at balloons - $10 for 3 stuffed animals worth no more than a dollar or two, but the kids really thought they did something. 

 Eli's hands are really big! :)

 The pack -n -play didn't fit in the bathroom so we had a portable crib on each side of the room. Since David hasn't ever slept in the same room with anyone we draped a curtain over his bed, but he's 1, not stupid, so he knew we were right there. He was so cute peeking his head out every morning. 

 The last afternoon we went to the boardwalk, "official Myrtle Beach" as Steven says. There was a few too many loud bikes for my liking but we held on tight to the kids, found a pizza joint and an arcade, and had a good time. We decided to try this newish thing called the Skywheel, pictured below.

 We sat in glass-enclosed seats and went really high, Eli LOVED it.

 We put on a brave face but we were pretty happy when the ride was over. 

 Mary Jo finally gave up on a nap in her bed and zonked out in the baby carrier. 

 The last night I finally grabbed a hotel employee to take a family picture - you gotta have at least one on vacation! Here we are, "fancied up" as Sadie likes to call it, going out to dinner. Notice Eli's sleeveless shirt, he doesn't get quite as excited as Sadie with dressing up. 

 We decided to splurge a little and took the kids to a Japanese Steakhouse. We had never taken our kids there and I thought it would be fun for them to watch the "show". They had fun and ate better than I had expected, especially D. Sadie enjoyed the chef so much that when he was finished she asked if we could take him home. D was working on his 3rd bowl of sherbert and I told him he ate "like a king!" which he kept repeating after that with big inflection. He really is becoming the ham of the family, he keeps us laughing. 

It was a great week, the kids got a lot of swimming in, and we made some sweet memories. It was also exhausting. There was a couple mornings I was by myself with all 4 and people I didn't know were offering to help me. I guess we don't have it together very well, and it shows, but we're doing our best! As for the next couple trips we have planned we thankfully have grandparent back-up, which will be soooooo nice. And safer. Our kids are wild but happy, energetic, and I wouldn't trade them for anything. Most of the time. In a few short years our vacations will go back to sleeping in, lounging at the pool, and hotel rooms without candy trash (no, actually Steven produces most of that)....and while we'll enjoy that time together we'll probably talk about our crazy family ones, hopefully many more to come!