Where does the time go?

I keep thinking that I will sit down and blog but I just don't know where the time goes. We haven't done too much since coming home from our trip but life is just busy, ya know?

B#1 had a birthday. I can't believe he is 19 years old now!

The girls taught me how to knit so I am working on a blanket for the new baby. It will only be knit stitches since that is all I know how to do right now but it will be a lovely chocolate brown, which is one of my favorite colors, with either a cream satin border or a pink one. Not sure about that part yet.

I have already started school planning for next year. I hope to have most of it planned out before the baby comes in August. I am really trying to keep things much simpler this year and just enjoy reading lots with the children. That is a challenge for me since I am not much of one to read out loud. I have been listening to a couple of CDs by Victoria Botkin that a friend loaned me. She is a veteran homeschooler who has very successfully homeschooled her children. Her two girls have written and published a book so I think the way she schooled works. She did the basics but she spent much time reading all kinds of books with her children....science, history, good fiction etc. So that has encouraged me in my planning. We are starting in Genesis this year so I am looking forward to that. DH and I have been watching some wonderful videos by Ken Ham from Answers in Genesis that I think I will watch with the children this year as well since they are all about creation.

Okay, lets see what else has been going on? Oh, we bought a goat yesterday. We had recently put B#8 on cow milk and it just didn't seem to agree with his tummy so we started buying goat milk from some people we know but it gets quite expensive and time consuming to get it from someone else so we decided to just buy a goat. We should have enough milk left to sell as well and we have a few families who have said they would buy milk from us. So I guess we are back in the goat business again, at least for awhile.

DH has unfortunately been extremely wrapped up in a home problem so I feel that he hasn't really been able to enjoy his time off. We recently found out that some of our property is in a flood zone and that we are required to have flood insurance. Sounds simple enough until you get into the intricacies involved in that and the extreme expense involved. We are still a bit in shock about it and are praying about what the Lord would have us to do in this situation. We would appreciate all your prayers in this time.

Well, other than enjoying a few wonderful sunny days playing outside with the kids on the trampoline we are just sticking close to home.

Sorry that there are no pics this time...just too lazy I guess.

Our Trip

After seeing that B#2 already blogged about our trip, I told her maybe I should just do a post that said "see daughter's blog" but she said I should still write about it since our stories would be different. Well, we shall see about that.

The first day we went to a place in Washington called The Northwest Trek, kind of a zoo of sorts but with mostly Northwest wild animals. The weather was so wonderful for walking through and seeing all the animals. Then we went on a tram ride to see other animals that weren't in cages such as Bison, deer and "reindeer" (their proper name escapes me right now). All in all it was a good day with not so much walking as you would do in a regular zoo, which suits preggo mama just fine!

The first night at the beach house where we stayed was interesting since there were 10 of us in a two bedroom, 1 bathroom house but Praise the Lord there was only one time where I was almost in tears waiting for my turn in the bathroom. Not too bad for a five day trip. Baby was in the room with us so that was quite a transition for the three of us but by then end he was getting used to sleeping there.

We decided to give the little ones a break from the van the next day so we just rode around the island a bit seeing what all was there. We were told from a local store clerk that people come to the island for the sunrises, sunsets, mountains and water which didn't leave a whole lot for us to do with the kids but we did manage to have a picnic at a local state park and then just head back to the beach house for some time on the beach(which is rocky) and some rest.

This in pretty much where baby stays while we are out and about, on big brother's back.

We also visited the "World Famous Uff Da shop", which surprisingly our friends who let us stay in the beach house had never even visited. I can't imagine why!?!

On day three we decided to head to Seattle to go to the Pacific Science center and just see what Seattle was like. After that we decided to take the monorail down to Pike's Place Market. I think the kids were wondering why in the world we wanted to go down there since it was so strange and busy but it was an experience for us all and we got some really yummy doughnuts to eat on the way home.

To tell the truth, mom was really ready to head home on day 4 but after praying for rest and strength, I persevered and made it through to the end. So on day 4 we decided to head north to see the San Juan islands, Friday Harbor in particular. The ferry ride was a very enjoyable hour but unfortunately, by the time we got to Friday Harbor most things were going to be closing for the day and we were pretty much stuck wandering around the shops right near the ferry since we chose not to pay the fee to bring our van on the ferry with us. Our return ferry wasn't scheduled to leave until 7:35 so that left alot of time wandering but the Lord was good...it didn't rain, we were able to find a place to eat that wasn't too fancy and there was a very small coffee shop near the ferry where we were able to spend some time while waiting. Chalk that part of the trip up to another experience for us all.

On our way home we stopped in Olympia to have lunch with a dear friend who I grew up with. What a blessing and surprise it was for us when DH tried to pay for their lunch only to find out that they had already paid for our lunch....all 10 of us!

After lunch, we made two more planned stops before heading home. One was to the World's largest bead store, Ship Wrecked Beads. I am not sure who enjoyed it more, dad or the girls. Then we were off to the Cabela's store...fun for the guys. It was definitely an interesting place.

It was a fun trip, but boy were we glad to be home. It felt like a palace after all that traveling. One more interesting anecdote...on day two while we were exploring the island, we went in to a little kitchen store there. I was admiring this interesting popcorn popper where you don't need any oil to pop it in the microwave, just plain ole good for you popcorn. Well we decided to pass on it, not wanting to spend more money than we should on the trip, but once we got out to our van and started leaving, out comes the store clerk rushing to our van with the popcorn popper in her hands. She wanted us to have it she said. Wasn't that very nice? What a blessing! We are still working on learning how to use it properly.

A New Addition

Well I had planned to blog about our trip today as well as sharing this news but since I left my camera at a friend's house I will wait on that post. But anyway....I can at least share our wonderful news with you all. The Lord has blessed us again with the priviledge of a new baby. We are all excited to meet this new little on come August. We recently had our ultrasound to see how all is progressing. This was the first time that we have had the children come in with us, well, for some of it. We knew that it would be a long appointment so we let them walk the track that the hospital has while the technician did most of her work and then we called them in for the last 5 minutes or so for when she told us whether the baby is a boy or a girl. We are all very excited, especially the girls, to be adding a baby girl as baby number 9 to our family. The sewing of dresses has already begun around here. It is amazing to me to think that we are already half way through this pregnancy. It has gone so fast and with DH being off of work for 2 months it will go by even faster. I am adding one of the 3D photos of the baby from the ultrasound but sometimes it can be really hard to tell what is what so good luck figuring it out.

Although I am not real fond of 3D ultrasound photos I thought this one wasn't too bad. You can see her chin, cheek, nose and mouth pretty easily. She has her hand up beside her face. The name discussion started the very night we found out that the baby is a girl but we are definitely open for suggestions for her. We have already had the suggestions of Melissa and Marie from her Aunt Missy:)

Sabbatical

DH gets a 2 month vacation from work every seven years and this is our year (Woo Hoo) so we are going to be out alot exploring new places. We hope to be able to post a bit while traveling but we shall see. If not, see ya when we get home.

Baby Turns 1

I just can't believe it has been a whole year already. Our sweet littlest has turned one! It is funny how snugglie he has become since turning one. DH and I went shopping for his birthday and looked at all kinds of toys, noisy toys, climbing toys, expensive toys...and in the end decided for simplicity, after all, what does a one year old really need or even play with aside from the box that the toy came in? So we decided on a big yellow ball, some bubbles for his sisters to blow for him, a ring stacking toy and a boat for the bathtub. All the gifts were a hit, if not with him, then at least with B#7 who is determined that the ball is his.

Mom's isn't the best cake decorator but I thought his #1 cake didn't turn out too bad.

A Spring Picnic

The weather was so wonderfully warm yesterday that we all ate our lunch outside in the sunshine.

Sister Torture

B#4 is responsible for getting B#7 dressed and his teeth brushed after someone gives him and baby a bath. Well this time she decided to torture him a bit and style his hair in different ways. I do believe this has been done to him before back when he was a baby.

Nice middle part....we gotta work on getting rid of that binky, at least the pink one:)

A nice forward version of the comb-over.

A cool spiky hairdo.

Ah, that is better!

Then he decided it was his turn to have some fun.