Sunshine

 Our Sunshine turned 5 on December 27th, it is crazy to believe that the child I always think of as my baby is already 5.  It has been so easy to keep him my baby because of his extra needs, but the truth of the matter is he really is no longer a baby!

 That came full circle on December 30th when we officially confirmed that he is autistic.  Not a word I like to use around him, but not a word we are afraid of either.  We have wondered for some time if that was the case, and really, we wouldn't have needed a doctor to tell us this...but there really is nothing more we can do for him than we already are.  Sure, we can always improve on things....but schedule schedule schedule is very important to him, always has been!  Also his gluten free diet is a big thing to.  But yet, I do not consider myself to be a parent to a special needs child.  He is not terribly high on the spectrum, but he is high enough that as we have slowly told friends and family they were not shocked to hear the news. 

 In other news, he is in love with beyblades.  Sort of a modern day top, if you will.  He REALLY like potatos of any form and likes that more and more foods are coming out gluten free!  He takes every chance he can get to do fun things with Daddy or snuggle with Mommy.  He is also such a sweet, loving big brother to his baby sisters!  He is small for his age, only weighing in around 36 lbs and wearing sz 4 clothing (shirt are too big for him!)  We have been working on hitting this 40 lb mark for a couple of years now....but in his time!  The child eats like a horse but he doesn't EVER stop moving either.  He will sit still if you give him something to keep his hands busy.  Some of my favorites about him right now are his tender heart towards the feelings of others, his sweet snuggles, his beautiful blue eyes and last but NOT least, HIS GIGGLES!  What a precious addition to our family....he really is a ray of Sunshine!

Sunshine

So when getting Sunshine dressed today a pair of pants he has had on recently seemed a little short to me, so we measured him on the wall where we 'keep track' of our kids' growth only to find out that he has grown almost an inch since October 7th!  That explains why the child is eating like a horse!  But before I told him how big he was getting he told me how he knew he was getting bigger, 'and you know why Mommy?' as he lifts his pant leg and says, 'because look how much hair I have on my legs!'  Haaahaa, that cracks me up!  I asked him if that means he is getting big and he said yes...and then I asked him who said that hair on your legs meant you were getting big...'Um, I don't know, I just figured that is what it meant!'

Life stays interesting with the four kids God has blessed us with, that is for sure!

Out of the Mouths of Babes!

So we have been talking with Princess and Sunshine about salvation and what it means to be saved.  We have been reading verses like the Romans road and answering many MANY questions they have about asking Jesus into your heart and the difference between heaven and hell.  Their minds are constantly amazing me in how much they are soaking up these days! 

Well after the normal round of "Jesus Loves Me" while Princess, Sunshine and the other Pumpkins were waiting for me to finish getting their plates loaded up at lunch today my two started talking about heaven and hell.  Princess all of a sudden says, "when I am in hell Jesus will save me if I ask him into my heart."  It was yet another opportunity to explain that if we find ourselves in hell it is too late to ask Jesus to save us.  She asked me if I was going to go to heaven or hell when I died and I proudly told her that because I trust Jesus Christ as my personal Savior that I know there is a home for me in heaven when I die, and that is very exciting!

After a few more minutes my son says, "Mommy, do you think it would be okay if I talk to Daddy more about this at bedtime tonight because I have so many questions and he knows a lot about the Bible without even having to look it up; sometimes Mommy when I ask you, you have to get your Bible and read it before you answer me!"  It is true, Handsome and I are a good team that way!  Except it isn't that I have to look up the verses, it is the references.  But the secret is that I remember the verses and Handsome remembers the references! 

Anyway, it just makes my heart smile to know that they are starting to ask many MANY questions about salvation and we pray that one day in the future our children will ask Jesus into their hearts! 

I am VERY thankful for such a godly husband that does such a good job explaining these very important things to my children!

Mama Thoughts

 Something has hit me over the past 12 hours that I wasn't ready for.  Something that has brought tears to my eyes several times in that short time!  Last night as we were having Princess and Sunshine say their verse and sing to Cupcake one last time before she is born and then we have bedtime prayers with them I couldn't keep my tears away!  All these thoughts started running through my mind, thoughts that I had not even really considered before then.  You see our children are leaving at noon today with our Pastor and family and will be with them until after Cupcake is born (hopefully sometime tomorrow if the induction goes well!)  So the next time we will all be together we will be a family of fine.  Something we are all very excited about, and I believe Princess and Sunshine are very excited too.  But no one knows how bringing Cupcake into our home will effect our 4 year olds! 

I am sure there will be a transition time where things will be less than lovely with attitudes and behaviors...but I am also sure that big brother and sister will love their baby sister VERY much!  But as a Mama you start thinking about things like 'have I used my time with JUST them well enough' 'have I loved them enough that they know I will still love them even with a baby?' and things of that sort.  They just started creeping into my head!  We have had 'extra' kids around most of their lives through the Patch and also foster care, but all of those children end up going home at some point...they do not stick around!  We are still a very spontaneous family...there are times when at the spur of the moment we decide to run out of the house to get ice cream for fun and with a baby you need to be a little more prepared than that.  So things are going to change.

Anyway, just some thoughts on the day before my induction.  The day my big kids will leave my home with people I fully trust to care for them, but the day that they will take a piece of my heart and a life that will no longer be the same with them only to return to an entirely different situation in a matter of 72ish hours.  So I cry, I cry because I am so happy that we are so blessed.  I cry because I am sad that their lives will change (though in a good way, they may not see it as good at first) and I cry because I am still pregnant and that is what pregnant ladies do! 

But I want Princess and Sunshine to know how very much their Mama and Daddy love them...we love them today, we love them tomorrow, and we love them forever....and bringing Cupcake into our home isn't going to change that! 

Little Builder

My Sunshine has been working very hard at figuring out how to build stable structures with his Lincoln.Logs for over a month now!  This is by far not the most impressive piece he has built, but the one Mama finally woke up and took a picture of!  As you can see he is very proud of himself for accomplishing what he does accomplish!  One time he had a goal of using as many of the logs as he could in his building and he used most of them, another time he tried to build what he saw on the box and did a great job!  So proud of my little Sunshine!

Valentines Weekend

 Pottery 2 Paint ~ Princess making a pizza plate!

 Sunshine making a piggy bank!

 Hard work on everyone's part!

 She put red 'polk-E-dots' on top for pepperoni!

 Sunshine thought his piggie needed glasses, so Handsome put some on...would have been a really cute pig without them!

 Psalm 119:105 is their very first Sunday School memory verse! 

Every Valentines weekend for the last 3 or maybe even 4 years we have had a 'family weekend.'  We usually take the Friday before V-day off and get a hotel for two nights so we can swim and just have a fun family day!  This year with me being SO pregnant I didn't want to sleep in a bed other than my own and really didn't feel like swimming so we just spent Saturday together as a family.  We went to the local pottery store and the kids each picked a project...Daddy broke the rules by helping Sunshine way MORE than he was supposed to, but the kids had fun any way!  We were given OliveGarden giftcards for Christmas so we used them for our lunch date and then we did a little shopping!  It was a fun LONG day (we actually closed down the mall!) 

While we are not huge on traditions, our kids are starting to remember certain things and that is fun to me!  Valentines family weekend, I believe, will be sticking around for years to come! 

"You Are MY Sunshine"

When Princess and Sunshine were little tiny babies, I sang 'You Are My Sunshine' to them every morning when they first woke up.  Over the years it has become 'Sunshine's Song' so much so that he heard it on my Patch blog the other day and said, "Mommy, it is MY song!"  I think it is cute...we all know the words to the chorus, and maybe the first verse...but did you know there is A LOT more to this song?

You Are My Sunshine

My only sunshine.
You make me happy
When skies are grey.
You'll never know, dear,
How much I love you.
Please don't take my sunshine away


The other nite, dear,
As I lay sleeping
I dreamed I held you in my arms.
When I awoke, dear,
I was mistaken
And I hung my head and cried.


You are my sunshine,
My only sunshine.
You make me happy
When skies are grey.
You'll never know, dear,
How much I love you.
Please don't take my sunshine away.


I'll always love you
And make you happy
If you will only say the same
But if you leave me
To love another
You'll regret it all some day;


You are my sunshine,
My only sunshine.
You make me happy
When skies are grey.
You'll never know, dear,
How much I love you.
Please don't take my sunshine away.


You told me once, dear
You really loved me
And no one else could come between
But now you've left me
And love another
You have shattered all my dreams;


You are my sunshine,
My only sunshine.
You make me happy
When skies are grey.
You'll never know, dear,
How much I love you.
Please don't take my sunshine away.


Louisiana my Louisiana
the place where I was borne.
White fields of cotton
-- green fields clover,
the best fishing
and long tall corn;


You are my sunshine,
My only sunshine.
You make me happy
When skies are grey.
You'll never know, dear,
How much I love you.
Please don't take my sunshine away.


Crawfish gumbo and jambalaya
the biggest shrimp and sugar cane,
the finest oysters
and sweet strawberries
from Toledo Bend to New Orleans;


You are my sunshine,
My only sunshine.
You make me happy
When skies are grey.
You'll never know, dear,
How much I love you.
Please don't take my sunshine away


When I first read the rest of the song I was bummed, because it is about two people that go different ways after being in love....how could that be a song I have 'given' to my son.  But then as both are getting excited about being 5 next, they do grow up quickly and before we know it they will be married and not need us as much as they do now!  So it can still apply!  I love that my son and I have this special thing between us.  He is my handsome little man, and his smile really does bring sunshine to my life! 

Love you Sunshine!

Belly Button Song

My kids have been soaking up all sorts of things lately, and have enjoyed 'silly songs with Larry' on Veggie Tales!  Just Friday we were watching the "God Made You Special" one and they were all of a sudden cracking themselves up while I was making lunch!  I had to peak on them without letting them know I was there to see what was up...it had gotten to the 2:59 part of this video and they were singing the 'UH UH' part and it literally had my kids laying on the floor laughing!  I am thankful that my children still find such sweet and innocent things funny!  I pray it stays that way for a while!

(you may want to pause the music player at the bottom of the blog)

My kids!

I have to say, once again, that I LOVE being a mama!  There are days that are trying and difficult, but at the end of the day when these two precious kiddos say their verses and share what is important to them that we pray about it just melts my heart every time!  Or the best is when they are REALLY tired and do not really know what they are talking about and start saying stuff that doesn't make any sense!

While I have to admit 4 isn't my favorite year, it has been fun so far!  Their minds, imagination, thoughts, hearts, playtime, and love for people and tasks is encouraging and amazing!  I love listening to them play and talk to each other just to hear what is going on in their minds!

I have been blessed beyond measure with these two beautiful people....they are everything to my husband and myself!

February 2011

Happy February! 

*This month is the first of 3 that our daughter COULD be born (since we do not really know our due date!)
*This month Handsome and I will celebrate 8 1/2 years of married life!
*This month holds VALENTINES DAY (a big thing in my book!)
*This month will start off very cold, but we could also see some nice temps too!
*This month holds no negative memories for me! 
*This month will be a good one!

My Little Man

So a few weeks ago I did a little Fall shopping for the kiddos, since it has been feeling like fall for a while here now! One of my favorite things that came around was this hat for Sunshine....I do think he rocks it pretty well! He was throwing me pose after pose...enjoy!

A New Discovery

After one of our drives our son was looking a little on the pale side! We got home and literally had time to get Princess on the potty chair and Sunshine lost his supper all over Princess's shoes (she had already taken them off!) Our discovery seems to be that if we are driving for too long in the hills our sons tummy just cannot handle it! So, he slept in the bath tub! Now some people may think this to be odd, but I just didn't want to be cleaning up his crib and his floor around it again! He actually thought it was pretty neat, we did move him in the early hours of the morning though because he was clearly feeling better and ready to play! So he finished the night in his crib...but while I was putting him in the tub I just couldn't wait to blog about it. That's not sad, is it?

Round Two, Day One

As round 2 started outside... It was C r A z Y inside!Princess has an opinion about everything these days and since I knew we wouldn't be going anywhere, she was able to pick her entire outfit...what do you think? Crazy flowers on top, and crazy snowflakes on the bottom! At least the pinks were the same shade!As I said in a previous post, he is really into hats right now and it doesn't matter if they are boy, girl, or baby hats...anything that ever COULD be a hat he tries! Silly Boy!

Case & Point!

We try not to work too hard on anything other than spending time as a family on snow days...and it looks like we may be in for round 3 sometime in the next week or so...what do you do with surprise days off?

Needed some time to wiggle!

After having snow from Sunday (22nd) ~ Wednesday (25th) the kiddos & Mommy needed to get out of the house. We all went to see our wonderful chiropractor and the kids got their stickers for letting Dr. S work on their backs with no fussing we went and visited our dear lawyer friend E. Had some paperwork to sign, and then brought it to our dear car friend MG as he had to sign it too! These two guys are just adored by our kids and they make themselves at home whenever they are around! Anyway, we decided to go out to our fav G.uadalajaras for supper, since we heard snow round 2 was coming!

Sunshine took the chance to look over the menu to see if there was anything other than Chicken & French Fries that he could eat...

Princess did it just like a big person, she looked at the pictures and pointed! He is still hard at work looking for something on the menu he can have...the jury is still out on that one!We then went for a short drive and Sunshine tried to charm Mommy with his smiles...Take 2...

Snow + Kids = Snowtime

Tuesday afternoon it was fairly nice as far as the temps go (relative since less than 48 before we were close to 80!) but it seemed like a good idea to bundle the kids up and let them enjoy some snowtime. Princess did not like it from the beginning...Sunshine LOVED IT!!! He actually cried when it was time to go in!

Daddy showed the kids the big drift in the back of the house and how to play 'skeet ball' on it with Princess's princess ball!Hiding behind a tall drift... Sunshine playing with his bat and making dents in the snow!Princess starting to head through the tunnel and turning around to come back because she wasn't so sure about the snow being so far over her head!But they made it safely through! With Daddy waiting for them on the deck at the other side

Someone taught them how to eat snow...hmmmSunshine really liked the 'ice cream'Happy to be going back the other direction (she thought we were going in!)Sunshine going down down down the stepsStopping to take a lick of 'ice cream'Again, happy because she thought we were going in Sunshine was just loving the snow She realized we were not going in


That same someone taught them how to make snowballs AND throw them! hmmmmm...Having fun over 3 foot of snow

Until he sunk! But he still didn't get too upset, he worked hard and managed to get out all by himself!