WHEW!

Oh my goodness...we have been so busy! I don't even know where to start- the days have just been flying by. Our shipment of home school books finally came in today- we've gotten so many hand-me-down books, I just needed to place one order for both kids. I waited to officially start all the subjects until after public school was well on its way. I just couldn't muster up the energy to get in a new routine for the public school kids, take care of a newborn and start a new home school routine. So, tomorrow we will begin ALL the subjects here at home. We've been working on penmanship, reading and math all summer long so those things are going smoothly...now we just need to add in all the rest and make it go smoothly with teaching 3rd grade, kindergarten and keeping a 3 year old busy (oh yea, tending to Angel Baby too).

I finally had enough of the nasty carpet in our sunroom- Hubby and the older girls ripped it out about a week ago. Since then, we've been walking on sticky floors cause the glue is still on the cement. It looks like there used to be a vinyl floor down before the carpet. Some places have old vinyl, some places it's been scraped off and it's just glue on cement. Lovely...


My sweet, dear son is scrubbing the sticky floor for me with Pine Sol. The smell was just overwhelming after pulling that carpet up...makes me wonder why it smelled so bad...YUK!


Here's Princess doing a coloring project while brother was mopping the floor.

Finally, brother got his turn to hold Angel Baby. He usually has to fight his sisters to get a moment to hold her!

I've been working on re-flooring the sunroom and going through pictures to put in albums. I finished one album yesterday of our first 6 months together after the 4 kids came home from Liberia. A friend of mine gave us a Creative Memories album with some cute journal sheets to put along side the pictures. It took me almost a year, but I finally got pictures developed and got them in a book. Now, I just need to order a matching album and get the last few months in order. The kids will be home a year on November 10th- man, did that time go by fast!

We got those self stick vinyl tiles to put on the floor in the sunroom. I figured the room is just a big rectangle so how hard can it really be? SHEESH! I'm about half way now...I think. And why did I buy a pattern with little squares?? That need to line up??? Of course the room isn't square so my flooring project just became harder. This is one of those times in my life when I wish I wasn't so OCD! Oh well, a little at a time and I'll get done eventually. I'll post pictures when it's done. I think I have enough left over paint from other projects to paint the room and all the trim. If I don't need to buy paint, that room will have a makeover with very little money. YEA!

Since Big Brother is gone at the Military Academy, the two oldest girls got their first lesson in mowing the lawn last Saturday. DD#2 was first to run the lawn mower (DD#1 ran the weed eater). The poor girl had a rough go in the back yard...first was the slide to the swing set. The hole she made looks small but how she made it was hilarious! She drove UP THE SLIDE on the riding mower. YUP...I said up the slide.


Then came the plastic kiddie pool. She pinned it between the lawn mower and the big pool. I think the exhaust actually burned this hole in it...thus our second 'lawn mowing' casualty.

After that, Hubby finished the back yard and told her she better take a break. She felt bad but we just had to laugh it off. It isn't every day your daughter drives up a slide...

Photography skills...

Well, this is about the extent of my photography skills- frankly, I surprised myself! My dresser doubles as the changing table, and as I was changing our little angel baby I thought to take a picture in the new outfit grandma sent. As I stood there thinking about the best angle to take the picture...I noticed her looking in the mirror at me. Then I thought about taking a picture in the mirror....pure 'genius' on my part! hehe Anyway, I thought it turned out pretty cool so I wanted to share. Have a great week!

New pics

Our little angel baby has decided she doesn't like sleeping it the cradle (that fit so nicely beside our bed!). So, I got out the crib and started to assemble it- hoping she would sleep better in the 'big girl' bed. After attaching the last side, I realized I had gotten myself stuck inside the crib- not that there was any room to sit outside the crib (our bed is only about 12 inches away!). Angel baby has slept awesome the last two nights, seems the bed switch made a big difference.

Sleeping on daddy...

Our good friend, Mr. E, came to have dinner with us yesterday. He, and his two children, brought two of their horses so our kids could have a ride. Here's Princess with her turn.

Another one of Princess and Mr. E's daughter.

Here's DD#3 with her turn riding Chris, the horse.

DD#2 taking her turn, she wasn't so sure about the whole 'horse riding' experience...

You can barely see DS#2 riding behind Mr. E's son. This horse is named Skipper.


DS#3 hanging on tight!

DD#1 with her turn. She was hanging on for dear life!

The last ride of the day. Everyone was trying to squeeze in just one last turn!

DS#2 this morning on his first day back to (public) school.

DD#1 this morning, on her way back to (public) school.


DD#2 this morning, heading back to (public) school.

A little sweetness for today

10 toes...

10 perfect little fingers...

Lil' Miss Pink...


All of our boy baby stuff bagged up and ready to be taken to Little Rock. My very good friend just received her first foster child today...the 'sweet one' is a 6 week old baby boy. What a better place than for all our stuff to be given?...I was having an emotional time going through it all- but knowing it goes to her for her little guy makes me feel a lot better! Who knew giving baby stuff away would be so hard and feel so final?

Finally....a family picture!

We finally got a picture of our crew! Here we are...all 10 of us!

Here's 'princess' with our little angel!

And big brother...


And just one of the 4 big sisters!

One week & 1/2 of a pound

Here's our little Angel Baby at a week old. She had her well baby check up and gained 1/2 a pound already! She fits in well...even at a week old, she LOVES food!

8 days old, sleeping in the swing.
Hubby and the older girls started Tae-kwondo this week. The little boys had their class first and then everyone else joined in for the next class, the Family Night class. I think it's cute that the little boys are a higher rank than their daddy!

Princess was so upset that she didn't have a uniform. The instructor was so nice and said that if she stopped crying she could have a uniform. Princess immediately stopped and said, "Thank you, maam." I guess she's been listening to the classes when the students answer the instructor with "Yes Maam!" Too cute...

This-n-That

Well, I didn't get pictures yesterday like I hoped...I forgot at church, my camera never left the bag (would have been a great opportunity to get a family pic)! Because of the weather, we stayed inside yesterday. I rested mostly with baby while hubby played endless games of Monopoly with the older 6 children. I don't know that he was playing exactly by the rules- there seemed to be a lot of 'deal making' going on. They were all having fun though, and learning how to count/exchange money. The weather has been "Africa Hot" lately with yesterday being 104 in the shade. That's not the heat index or humidity added in. The Liberian kids now compare the weather and they tell us if it's "Africa Hot" outside. They have determined that, yes, it's "Africa Hot" and they love the fact that we can stay inside and it's cool.

The 3 older children were occupied today (and all were somewhere different) so I took the 5 little ones to Walmart to finish up the school shopping. Thank goodness I started over a month ago and have done a little here and there! This year we have 1 child in a private school, 3 in public school and 2 home schooled. Each one needed different things (I had school supply lists for 4 kids) and everyone got a new pair of shoes- including Princess (our 'almost' 3 year old). While shopping in LR-and in labor!-I visited Old Navy and got some great deals. I was able to get 2 outfits each for 6 kids and then Hubby and I each got two shirts.

This is what baby has been doing since 9:30am (it's now 12:30pm). I never thought she would have made it all the way through Walmart and then back home again before waking up. She's still sleeping and I'm thrilled! Thank you, God- I'm so happy to have an 'easy' baby! I'm praying she stays this way!!


She's a little jaundiced but not nearly as bad as some of the other kids have been at 5 days old. Her newborn 'puffiness' is gone and we can see her features a lot better, she looks just like her other siblings when they were born. A friend of mine commented on how she looks so much like her daddy. All the kids have looked like daddy from day 1! I just wait a few years and see if any of my features show up in any of them...they have shown up eventually!

The "middles" are all occupied at the moment working on projects and enjoying some of their new school supplies. I'm off to eat some lunch and then get Princess down for a nap. Princess picked out Dora shoes and a Dora activity set for her school stuff. She's happily playing for the moment- I have a feeling she won't be too happy when I mention the word 'nap.' That's one of my favorite times of the day! Wish I could be sleeping...

Have a great day!

It's a girl!

Just before changing into my gown and hopping into the hospital bed to get connected to all the monitors... my face is pink in this pic because it was over 100 degrees outside! I was so hot by the time I got to the hospital!

Mad baby! This was moments after delivery and we found out she was a girl!

Full tummy-happy, sleeping baby... we were waiting for daddy to come and pick us up from the hospital and bring us home.

Everything went well, I actually went into labor on my own after seeing the doctor on Wednesday morning. I stayed in Little Rock and 'walked around' (shopped!) until my contractions were consistent. I checked into the hospital around 1pm and called Hubby to come and meet me up there. My contractions stalled a little and the staff started some pitocin around 4:30pm and the doc broke my water around 5pm. Little Miss was born at 8:47pm weighing 7 lbs. 14 oz, 20 3/4" long.

We came home 24 1/2 hours after delivery (I was MORE than ready) and arrived home by 11:15pm. Today is my first day home with the baby and the kids are all so excited. I keep reminding them that she's not going anywhere and they'll all have plenty of time with her (to hold her, etc). They're all very happy to have another sister, hubby can't resist picking on the big kids for being so certain she was a boy.... hehe

She's a good baby. If her belly is full, she sleeps for a few hours (more than our other babies ever did!) and is generally quiet most of the time. Hopefully this weekend I can get pictures of all the children holding her and some more close-ups for you all to see.

Have a great weekend!