The Wilcoxson's

A gift from nana and papa!

2012-02-15T16:42:00.001-06:00

Today the kids got a package from nana and papa. They sent them Valentine's packages. Each package had a card and some candy. The kids were thrilled to get something in the mail. Thank you nana and papa.

We have a graduate!

2012-02-10T10:19:00.001-06:00

Joshua graduated from Nitro 1 today. He did so well. Esther, Hannah, and Jacob are on stage 8 and have two more stages til they graduate. Joshua was so excited because he got a t-shirt.

Practice makes perfect

2012-02-02T13:56:00.001-06:00

We have swimmers! Each week at Nitro they get better and better. Well homework for swimming is 5 minutes of leg kicks a day. On their stomaches and then on their butts. Joshua thought that he would at least look cool while doing his kicks. I could not resist.

Tiny tots

2012-02-01T09:07:00.001-06:00

Every Monday morning the kids go to Tiny Tots. It is a program done at Austin Baptist Church where Jana Boyd lets the kids play musical instruments and sing and dance to music. She tells a Bible lesson and they pray. At the end of class the kids sing "This little light if mine" and they play with flashlights. I got this picture and thought it priceless and sweet.

Show me your game face!!!!!!

2012-01-29T22:20:00.001-06:00

Noel and I are trying to get back in shape this year. So Noel and I are working out, eating better, and making good choices.

Hannah found Noel's sweat band for his head and she thought she would show me her game face. Here it is!

Hair salon, no not really

2012-01-25T16:26:00.001-06:00

So the boys decided that they were going to play hair salon and the hottest hair styles. What ended up happening was Jacob received the haircut and was given two bald spots.

Noel buzzed his head so that his hair would grow back uniformaly.

I love chocolate

2012-01-21T07:48:00.001-06:00

While Noel is in travel season he tells our children if they are good there is a treat when he gets home. This week the treat was ice cream from McDonald's. Elijah lost the first day with just being a horrible child, but he got better as the week went by. Esther and Jacob decided it would be funny to laugh, shout and kick each other while in church. Hannah and Joshua were great. Last night after Date Night we took the kids for their treat. Noel thought the three who lost the special treat gain some kind of treat for being better for mommy, they got a cookie. Here are a couple pictures of our adventure.

Two peas in a pod!

2012-01-19T09:31:00.001-06:00

I got this picture on Sunday. I could not help it. Jacob is showing Noel and I that he is like Noel. Jacob is very task oriented, everything has a place and there has to be a good reason for things. He is a whiz at math and most days he scares me in school. Jacob's personality is fun to watch form. Enjoy this picture.

Relish, relish!

2012-01-16T14:41:00.001-06:00

Have you ever had something that you could not live without? Did you ever eat anything your grandmother made that you had to have?

Well I have several. Mush, cocktail sauce, oven BBQ chicken, spaghetti sauce and relish. Now the relish that my grandmother canned was not made with pickles but green tomatoes. So my mother and I have made relish several times, and each time we run out before the next batch. It is awesome on hotdogs, hamburgers, and in potato salad.

Today we made another batch. The tomatoes were green at sprouts, and all the ingredients were on sale. You know you have an awesome recipe from grandma when you need 1 gallons of green tomatoes how many is that?

Everyone in my family loves it. So we will see who calls first.

The picture is half of what we made, we got 13 jars. That is some awesome condiment in my pantry.

Pops house

2012-01-15T12:17:00.001-06:00

We went and saw pops this weekend. The kids had a blast. They walked the dogs, ate donuts, hotdogs, chips, candy, fruit, and fruit loops. You know they had a good time from the light switch cover that we cleaned before we left and the fact that they crashed in the van and the dogs are worn out. Thank you pops for a great weekend, we love you very much.

I cannot get enough!!

2012-01-14T08:46:00.001-06:00

Noel and I thought we would spend the weekend with pops, since he had surgery and because we love him. We went to Chili's last night for dinner. The kids ate really well. After dinner Elijah decided that he could not get enough juice. I am scared how their minds work.

My little swimmers

2012-01-13T09:29:00.001-06:00

I thought I would share a cute moment that Noel and I enjoy every week. We love our swimmers. They love Nitro Swim in Cedar Park. The instructors are amazing and friendly.

Is Daddy in Houston or Heaven?

2012-01-12T07:42:00.001-06:00

Noel has two travel seasons. He spends most of his time in Houston and Beaumont. He started traveling and so the kids ask where daddy is all the time. Here is the conversation that happened.

Kids: mommy where is daddy?

Me: he is in Houston, he will be home tomorrow.

Kids:Daddy is in heaven.

Me: No if daddy was in heaven then that means daddy is dead.

Kids: Oh, we want daddy here.

Me: Daddy is in Houston, he will be home tomorrow.

The funny thing is in my opinion Houston is not even close to heaven.

Can Elijah fire mommy?

2012-01-11T11:24:00.001-06:00

Elijah always wants to be in charge. Now that is not good when you are 5, because he is hardly ever in charge. Today he wanted to throw a toy at Jacob I told him no. Well he made a bad choice and had a punishment of no toys for the rest of the day. He went on to tell me that I was fired. With a smile I explained only God could fire me. Elijah told me he would talk to God. I have not heard the outcome but I do not think I am going anywhere, but my resume is ready just in case. You have to love the reasoning skills if a 5 year old.

Good Sports

2011-02-21T12:41:00.002-06:00

The "safari" have been doing the program Accountable Kids. It is a great program and very good for our "safari." Well in the program there is instant gratification and delayed gratification. After 10 days of doing your daily chores/duties then you get to go on a date with someone. The "safari" have been to the movies, Chucky Cheese and the girls had a tea party. Well this time the "safari" all decided that they wanted to go to the zoo with Pops when we were in San Antonio. They did their chores and collected their stars and were really excited about the zoo.

Well we get to San Antonio on Friday night and on Saturday morning it is raining. It rained all day, so Pops told the "safari" he would take them to the movies and we would walk around Bass Pro Shop and look at the animals in there. The "safari" agreed as long as they go to the go to the zoo later.

Elijah was sad because he wanted to see the flamingos. So we went to the Bass Pro Shop and saw the fish in the huge tank, and all the stuffed animals in the store. There were bears, lions, zebras, monkeys, deer, elk, moose, raccoons, skunks, foxes, hogs, and turkeys. Then we went and saw Gnomeo and Juliet. Guess what there is a flamingo in the movie, so we lucked out and saved the day.

Hopefully next time we get to go to the zoo, or maybe Sea World. It is great to see our "safari" getting bigger and smarter. WE are really excited about getting ready to homeschool and start Kindergarten in the fall with all of them. Next blog you will get to see my first quilt that I have finished.

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T06:29:00.005-06:00

We wanted to wish everyone we love a Happy Valentine's Day. The "safari" wanted to express that love with a video, so we covered all the Nanna's and Papa's and Pops, but we also covered those who do not have a significant other this year so that they would know that someone out there loves them on Valentine's Day and that they know that we are praying for them everyday that they would find a Godly woman to share their lives with.

Mr. Dominic, Rick and Joey my "safari" loves you very much and they love it when you come to visit us. As you can see when you walk in the door and know that you are prayed for everyday at least 2-3 times a day. Happy Valentine's Day and make sure that you come and see us, the "safari" would love to play.

To everyone else Happy Valentine's Day may you express your love that you have for each other everyday somehow differently today.

Sorry For the Lack of Information Lately!

2011-02-11T11:36:00.003-06:00

Sorry for the lack of information lately. Noel is in travel season which means that I am single parent for at least 4 days out of the week. This is my 5th year with travel season and each year new things challenge me. This year Elijah is having a rough time with Noel being gone. The other day he asked me, "Mommy is daddy coming home today?", "No, Elijah, daddy is working and will home tomorrow night." When he replies, "Does daddy still love me?" If that does not break your heart I do not know will. I know that it hurt Noel's heart. It is hard on him because he only gets to talk to the "safari" on the phone and hear their voices and then listen to me talk about how bad or just weird the day was. BUT then there is a side where he gets to do what he wants and when he wants while he is gone. There is both positive and negative things with his job. He loves his job and he gets to see some really cool things that other people do not. He got to go to Alaska this year.

Also I got a new sewing machine with my Christmas money, thanks Pops. So now I am a quilting physco. I have set out to make 5 quilts by July for the "safari." I am finished with one and going to start on my second. I will post pictures as I go.

Hopefully I will keep everyone up-to-date with our lives. Everyday is an adventure and some days I just have to laugh at what my "safari" say and do.

Happy Birthday Jesus

2011-01-10T11:22:00.002-06:00

This Year was great because the "safari" were really into Christmas. The Jesse Tree was great and the "safari" loved the stories and placing the ornaments on the tree every day. Noel and I bought the other 11 Jesse Tree ornaments and now we have the complete collection. If you do not know what a Jesse Tree is or if you want some more information here is a link

If you are interested in a professional ornament set I recommend this website. Our ornaments will last us the entire life of our Children and hopefully their children as well. Now there are websites out there that will let you download free ornaments but if this is going to be a tradition in your house you might want to make the investment in nice ornaments.

It is great to know that we have some traditions for the Christmas season and it is neat to meet people that have different traditions. I am always looking for great traditions so if you have one please leave a comment. Our traditions are the Jesse Tree when they get a little older we will read the Christmas story on Christmas morning and we are hoping to make Christmas simple. We also went to the Christmas Eve service at our church. They had one service for families with kids and then a traditional service. I did not like the family service and was really disappointed that our church could not leave Santa Clause outside of the church. They did have a neat video that told the difference between the two but in the skit they had Santa Clause on stage.

Christmas morning the "safari" got up and we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. Here is the video.

It is the only birthday where other people get gifts and the guests get to blow out the candles. We hope that each of you had a Merry Christmas and that your New Year is going well so far.

Simple Christmas

2011-01-05T23:28:00.002-06:00

Noel and I have decided that we want to make Christmas about Jesus and less about stuff. Nana, Papa, Nana Gail, Poppy Bobby, and Pops have enough fun buying them things that we thought we would keep it simple. Last year I made them Quiet Books and this year I could not think of something to make, until about 1 month ago.

My "safari" got into the superhero thing with capes. Now I do not have capes in my house and so my kitchen dish towels became capes. That is fine in all if you do not have 5 toddlers wanting to be superheros all at once. So I looked online and found this great site that gave me a free pattern and I was off and running. I have made 11 of these capes and more to come in the next couple of months. The "safari" love them and like telling people that they can fly now. If you are thinking this would be a great birthday gift or party favor here is the site where I found the pattern.

I had fun making them and it was worth the "safari" flying into the sunset with them on Christmas.

My First Catering Job

2011-01-03T07:59:00.002-06:00

Have you ever been to an event or done something put on by someone else and thought "I think that I could do that better?" I do not think that often but I did last year at the Christmas Party thrown by my husbands office. So i made a bid to cater the Christmas Party this year and won the bid. I had never cooked for 65 people before and really had to think through the whole thing. Now I do monthly cooking but we are not cooking the meals, but putting them together. I have to plan and prep all that and so that helped me with doing the catering. I asked my mother to help me as well.

The Menu was:

Cranberry infused Pot Roast
Gravy
Mashed Potatoes
Green Beans with Caramelized Onions and Bacon
Two Salads
Dressing
Parker House Rolls
Genoise Cake
Pumpkin Roll
Apple Strudel
Sweet and Unsweet tea
Coffee
Wassail

Here are some of the recipes:

Cranberry Infused Pot Roast & Gravy
Roast (3-5 lbs)
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
cranberry juice
apple
onion
chili powder
cumin
garlic powder
salt and pepper
beef broth
corn starch
milk

Rub the roast with chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, salt and pepper. In a frying pan put 2 tbsp oil and sear both sides of the roast. Place roast in crock pot. In a separate bowl add the cream of mushroom, fill the can with cranberry juice and mix together. Pour over roast. Cut one apple in half and put in crock pot, and slice one onion and put in crock pot. Cover the rest of the roast with beef broth. Put on high for 6-8 hours and on low overnight. When the roast starts to fall apart it is done. Remove the apple. Take the roast out and take 2 cups of the liquid and 1/2 cup of milk, and 2 tbsp of cornstarch. Whisk together and then add to pan and bring to a boil. Stir until thickened to the consistency that you like.

Mashed Potatoes

4 cups of frozen hash browns
1 box of herb and butter instant mash potatoes
4 oz cream cheese
1 stick of butter
4 oz Monterrey jack cheese
1/2 cup of sour cream
1 tsp of garlic powder, salt and pepper
2 cup boiling water
fried onions

Bring a pan of water to a boil and add the hash browns, cook for 5 minutes. In a large bowl add everything except the boiling water and fried onions. Heat the oven to 350. After the hash browns are done then save 2 cups of boiling water and drain the hash browns. Add the hash browns to the bowl and mix everything until well incorporated, make sure the cream cheese and butter are melted. Add the boiling water and stir until incorporated. Spray a 2 qt pan and add the mixture. Cook for 30-45 minutes. Add the fried onions on top and cook for 5 more minutes.

Green Beans with Caramelized Onions and Bacon

8 slices bacon, (8 oz.) chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cups sliced onions (2 to 3 large)
½ teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoons pepper
1 ½ pound fresh Green beans
2 tablespoons water
¼ cup cider vinegar

Cook bacon in large skillet over medium heat 8 to 10 minutes or until crisp, stirring frequently. Drain on paper towels. Discard drippings from skillet; wipe clean with paper towels. (Bacon can be made 2 days ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

Heat oil in same skillet over medium heat until hot. Cook onions, salt and pepper, covered, 10 minutes, stirring occasionally and adjusting heat as necessary. Uncover; cook 5 minutes or until light golden brown and very tender, stirring frequently. (Onions can be prepared 2 days ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

Cook beans in large pot of lightly salted water 6 to 8 minutes or until crisp-tender. Drain; cool under cold running water. Drain well. (Beans can be prepared 2 days ahead. Wrap in kitchen towel; refrigerate in resealable plastic bag.)

Just before serving, heat onions, beans and water in large skillet over medium-high heat until heated through, stirring frequently. Remove from heat; stir in vinegar.

Meanwhile, spread bacon on paper towel-lined plate; microwave 1 minutes to re-crisp. Sprinkle over beans.

Salads
We made a tossed salad and then

Cranberry Spinach Salad

1 tbsp butter
3/4 cup almonds slivered
1 pound baby spinach
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoon minced onion
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup vegetable oil

In a pan melt the butter and roast the almonds, remove and let cool. In a large bowl, combine the spinach with the toasted almonds and cranberries. In a medium bowl, whisk together sugar, onion, paprika, white wine vinegar, cider vinegar, and vegetable oil. Toss with spinach just before serving.

Parker House Rolls

1 1/4-ounce packet active dry yeast
1/2 cup sugar
7 1/2 to 8 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled, plus softened butter for brushing
2 cups whole milk, at room temperature
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tablespoon kosher salt, plus more for sprinkling

Bloom the yeast.

Measure out 1/2 cup warm water and check the temperature: It should be between 110 degrees F and 120 degrees F (comfortable bathwater temperature). Sprinkle the yeast into a large bowl, add the warm water and whisk in the 1 tbsp of the sugar. Let sit 1 minute (it should bubble and froth slightly), then gently stir in 1 cup flour. Set aside near the stove while you prepare the dough.

Make the dough.

Mix the melted butter and milk in a mixer with the hook attachment on low speed. Add the eggs and mix until blended. Scrape in the yeast mixture and mix until incorporated. Add 6 1/2 cups flour and 1 tablespoon salt and the rest of the sugar; mix until the dough forms a ball, 2 to 3 minutes, adding up to 1/2 cup more flour if the dough is too wet and sticky.

Let it rise.

Brush a large bowl with softened butter. Transfer the dough to the bowl, cover with a towel and let rise in a warm place, 2 hours to 2 hours, 30 minutes. The dough should double in volume.

Shape the dough.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Dust a clean flat surface with flour and turn the dough out onto it. Flour your hands; gently press the dough into a 16-by-8-inch rectangle, about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick (don't use a rolling pin).

Cut the dough.

With the short side in front of you, cut the dough in half lengthwise with a floured knife. Then slice crosswise into 12 strips.

Shape the dough.

One at a time, fold each strip of dough unevenly in half so the top part slightly overlaps the bottom half, then tuck the overhang underneath. Place the rolls seam-side down on the prepared baking sheet in 3 tightly packed rows. (If making in advance, wrap the baking sheet tightly in plastic wrap and freeze up to 3 weeks.) Let the rolls rise in a warm place until doubled

Bake the rolls.

Bake until the rolls are bursting at the seams and golden brown, 18 to 20 minutes. (If frozen, bake 25 minutes at 325 degrees F, then 10 minutes at 375 degrees F.) Remove from the oven and brush with softened butter. Sprinkle with salt and serve immediately.

After packing the car and looking at my messed kitchen we went and served the lunch. It was a huge success. I want to thank Nana Gail and Kimber for cleaning my kitchen and taking care of the "safari" while I served lunch. Also thank you mom for staying up late and hang in there with me. I hope that I am asked to do next years Christmas party. I am already thinking of what to serve.

Christmas with Pops

2011-01-01T14:00:00.003-06:00

When you get married you always want to see everyone for the holidays; well at least I do. I have been blessed to love and enjoy my in-laws. We went to see Pops in San Antonio the weekend before Christmas and Pops decided to give the "safari" their Christmas then.

The "safari" are at the age now when they do not totally understand asking for gifts but know how to open gifts better than anyone else. Pops got a real tree, put lights on the house and everything. The "safari" was totally thrilled and loved the gifts that they received. The big gift this year was tricycles. I found these really cool tricycles at Sams. Then Pops got the "safari" more Legos and then furry pets. Noel and I are okay with any pet that requires just batteries and no maintenance.

In the pictures you will see Noel putting Legos together. The truck is what I put together and it took me about 20 minutes to build and 20 seconds for Jacob to take apart. Thank you Pops for a wonderful Christmas. The "safari" love their gifts but love you more.

Noel and I received money. Noel bought phone accesories and things for his Firebird and I bought a new sewing machine that I had been looking at for about 4 months. Thank you. Well here are a few pictures of the "safari" playing with their new toys from Pops and riding their tricycles on the street they own now.

Branson Missouri

2010-12-29T19:41:00.002-06:00

About nine months ago, my mother and I were talking about going on vacation with the family. We decided to go to Branson, Missouri because they are suppose to have a beautiful Christmas display. We got a 2000 sq ft condo for the week for $515, fully furnished.

Noel and I knew that we would do better if we drove through the night on the way there. So we left at midnight and the "safari" slept until about 6:30 in the morning. After we checked in we relaxed and moved-in.

Day 1: relax
Day 2: swimming, playground
Day 3: downtown
Day 4: indoor golf
Day 5: Silver Dollar City
Day 6: Silver Dollar City
Day 7: Dinasour Museum, and Butterfly Palace
Day 8: Drove home

We made sure that we did not pack our days with activities but actually enjoyed our vacation. The "safari" loved the swimming pool; I thought it was funny that we got all dressed up and went to the indoor pool and then stripped down and swam. The "safari" liked playing indoor golf and they got better as we went. The good thing is that almost everywhere we went the triplets and Hannah were free.

Noel and I sat through a "travel" program to get a discount on our Silver Dollar City tickets. Also mom and dad sat through a time share program to get the Dinasour and Butterfly Palace for free. Also mom and dad got to see a show for free and sat on the second row. We thought it was a great vacation.

The "safari" did really well being in a new place and we kept most of their schedule. We laughed a lot. We taught the "safari" how to play GO FISH. The hardest thing was to get them to keep their cards a secret. Joshua told Jacob 'go fish' and Jacob picked a card and told everyone what it was. The adults had a good laugh and the "safari" had a blast. The adults enjoyed our time as well. Noel and dad played a lot of golf on the Wii and one night we all played bowling.

Also the "safari" rode their first amuzement rides, I have adventureous children. I see a lot of roller coasters in my future. We want to thank mom for being brave and riding the amuzement rides even though she hates them. Thank you for being a team player.

If you have not been to Branson you should go during the Christmas season. Silver Dollar City is amazing and has 4 million lights.

We are already looking to see where we are going next year.

Refinance?

2010-12-11T07:54:00.000-06:00

Noel started going to a bible study this semester and there was a lady there that works for a bank who was talking about mortgages and the interest rates. Noel filled out some paperwork and when it came back we were approved for 4.125% on a 20 yr loan. This means that we pay our house off 5 years earlier and the interest rate goes down. Also because we are refinancing our property taxes are in the refinancing; which is an answer to prayer with all the events that have happened to us this year. God is good.

Because we were close to the 20% in equity that you need to refinance an appraiser had to come into our house and appraise it. This was fine except that our master bathroom was not finished and some other small projects needed to get done before the appraiser could come in. That sounds good except that in the middle of everything Noel was out of town for a week taking a class in Houston.

Here was the list that we made and finished.
**Finish that master bathroom: fix the ceiling, put Sheetrock on the walls, texture the walls, paint the walls, cover the hole in the floor, put laminate and carpet in the bathroom, patch the hole in the ceiling from the wall to the old shower, fix the recessed lighting.
** Finish the molding downstairs: Paint over the nail holes, caulk the baseboards, touch up paint
** Mount the speakers in the TV room
** Clean and make the game room into a game/TV room, move all bookshelves from master to game room, move the couch into the game room
** Clean the garage: Get the Firebird out of the garage and clean the garage that has not been cleaned in over 2 years if not longer
** Cut the grass, and fix a few boards on the fence
** Fix the Attic hole with new molding

It does seem a little crazy when I type it out. Well Noel put the Sheetrock up and put the laminate on the floor before he left for Houston. While he was gone, I put the joint tape up and smoothed the walls the best that I could, I fixed the ceiling. That sounded too easy though, I had to cut the Sheetrock out of the ceiling to both sides of the studs. After I did that I realized that there was no way I was going to get a new piece of Sheetrock up there without some help. So Tim Conroy came over and helped me for a couple hours. That was the first time that I had actually been in our attic. Then I textured the walls and painted them.

When Noel got back we did the touch up on the walls that needed to be done, we put popcorn back on the ceiling, because we did not have time or energy to scrape the ceilings, and we put carpet in the master bathroom. We used the rest of the laminate from the stairs and a piece of the new carpet from downstairs with the memory pad as well. Noel then made the moldings for the doorways, because the hardware store wanted to charge over $30 for a piece of molding. Noel and I had never laid carpet but I think we did an excellent job with seam tape and making sure to pull the carpet as much as possible. We did the rest of the list as well. We made an appointment to have the appraiser over on a Wednesday morning. Well on Tuesday Noel and I stayed up all night and morning to finish the list, which meant that neither of us got any sleep that night. I did get a nap that afternoon though, sorry babe. The appraiser came and did his thing and we are closing soon.

Noel and I were shocked to hear what our house was appraised at. We were appraised at 209,000. Now we did not pay that for our house but Noel and I have put a lot of work into our house with our own hands and we would not sell our house for 209,000 but with the economy and what people are selling their houses for that is what our house appraised for.

So here is a little slideshow of the transformation of our master bathroom.

Operation Christmas Child

2010-12-09T08:13:00.000-06:00

Last year Noel and I wanted to get the "safari" looking towards missions. So we packed two boxes for Operation Christmas Child, one for a girl and one for a boy. This year Noel and I thought that each of our children would like to make their own box.

Each box contained:
*socks (2 pair)
*washcloth (2)
*outfit
*shoes
*candy
*chapstick
*toothbrush and toothpaste
*bar of soap
*crayons and coloring book with stickers
*a bouncing ball that lights up
*boys: trucks girls: chaulk and jacks

The "safari" was excited to put the lids on and pray over them. We continue to pray for the boxes until Christmas. Next year I think that we will track where our boxes go to show the "safari" how far they actually go. Noel and I have a great time and it is nice to see our mission oriented "safari" coming alive.

Halloween 2010

2010-12-07T07:55:00.000-06:00

Halloween was great this year, because the "safari" was one year older and they were really excited about the candy part of Halloween this year. They were the Wizard of Oz again this year because I worked so hard on their costumes last year that I wanted to get two years out of them. Pops came up to help us with the "safari." We carved our pumpkin in the early evening and the "safari" was okay with that but really could have cared less. I think that Noel and I had more fun then the "safari" did.

We ate dinner and then got ready to go Trick or Treating. It was dark when we started and the "safari" was more than excited. Noel and I tried cover all the rules of Trick or Treating with the "safari." You only ring the doorbell once: they took that as each of them got to ring the doorbell once. You say thank you when you receive your candy: they took that as say thank you and ask for more candy. If no one answers then no one is home: Jacob took that as try the door to make sure they are not hiding. We were out for about 1.5 hours and the "safari" got more candy then I thought they would. We had to send Noel back to the house to get a book bag because the "safari's" buckets were so heavy they could not carry them. Everyone had fun and they are already talking about next year. I think that we are going to be the 7 dwarfs from Snow White, Sneezy and Dopey will stay home in bed. It is great to have our "safari" at the age where they enjoy activities.

Stupid Geniuses

2010-12-05T07:39:00.000-06:00

I have come to the conclusion that when you put any two or more of my toddlers together in a room that they become stupid geniuses. I have several examples of this just based on all the modifications that we have had to make to the rooms that our "safari" sleep in. Here is a short list:

**Took all pictures off the walls so that they could no longer through their pillows to see if they could knock it down.
**Had to take the wheels off their cribs so they would not play roller derby with them.
**Had to nail their curtains into 1X1 into the studs in the wall because they were hanging from them
**Had to take the closet doors off because they were trying to slam their fingers off.
**Had to play team match to see who could be in the same room together. That took a couple of months.
**Had to put locks on the outside of the doors because they were playing exchange student with each other.
**Had to take the mattresses away from Elijah, Esther and Jacob because they figured out that you could lean it against the wall and climb up into the closet. That is how Jacob broke his collar bone. Now Elijah and Joshua have a bed that Noel and I have a hard time moving.
**Had to take the closet shelf out because Elijah and Esther Mae climbed onto the end of the bunk bed and climbed up into the closet and then were jumping back into the bed. Esther Mae taught Elijah how to use the wall to get into the closet.

I am sure there are more that I have forgotten, but that gives you an idea of the stupid genius acts that Noel and I have witnessed. Now the roommate assignments are as follows. Joshua and Elijah are roommates. Esther Mae and Hannah sleep together in a twin bed and Jacob sleeps in a twin bed in the other room. The third room is a guest room.

I thought I would leave you with a recent picture of my stupid geniuses.

It Is Alive

2010-12-02T07:33:00.000-06:00

After replacing the compressor, putting new tires on, draining the bad gas, putting a new battery in, Noel decided to start and drive the Firebird out of the garage. Mind you the last time he drove the Firebird was about 3 years ago. Noel and I had to push the Firebird into the garage the last time.

I was very proud of Noel for all the hard work that him and Dominic put into the car the last month, that I wanted to video the great accomplishment. Mind you the Firebird sounds horrible, but that is because the car still had some bad gas and all the new fluids had not run through yet. I was very excited as you can tell by my commentary.

Noel still has some work to do on the Firebird but it is close to being ready. We are more than grateful to the Gilbert's for letting us borrow their vehicle while Noel has made his Firebird come to life. You are amazing and wonderful friends.

Mad Scientists

2010-11-29T19:24:00.004-06:00

After the accident, Noel decided that financially we could not afford another car payment so he decided to revive the Firebird; that had been sitting in the garage for 2.5 years.

It needed new tires, new battery, fluids, fix the A/C, brakes, and miscellaneous things. Tires, battery, fluid were pretty easy things to fix. The A/C is not so easy to fix. The last time that Noel worked on his A/C he had to take the engine out to get to the A/C. Well to take the engine out there are 48 steps and each of those steps have other steps within that step. Dominic convinced Noel that they did not need to take the engine out because Noel has some extra parts from the last time that he worked on the A/C.

This is where it gets scary. Dominic and Noel decided that they could run the A/C dye to tell them where the leak was from the table saw. Yeah you read that right. Noel and Dominic strapped the compressor from the A/C to the table saw and ran the belt from the compressor to the compressor of the table saw and then gave it all power from the battery in the Honda. Sounds mad scientist right? That is what I thought and that is why I had to video tape this because if something blew up I was going to win America's Funniest Home Video Contest. Watch the video and see the lights dim when they turn everything on. Enjoy the video.

Noel and Dominic ran their test and found out that the compressor was bad and so they had to replace the compressor.

Future Posts

2010-11-15T11:31:00.001-06:00

I know that some of you think that we have fallen off the Earth, but we have not. I have lots of posts to do, but Noel and I are refinancing our house right now and we are trying to finish are bathroom. So stay with us and hopefully I can post some of the great things we have done soon. We love you.

Medical Update

2010-10-26T11:49:00.002-05:00

So here is a recap of the adventures in our house in the last couple of weeks. So two weeks ago, I got in a car accident and totaled the car. Then the following Friday, Jacob decided that he was going to jump of the highest spot in the room. On the following Tuesday he started to have blood in his stool. Of course, Noel was out of town and I was grateful that my mother was in town for some support.

On that Tuesday I took Jacob to see Art Cheng and he wanted me to collect his stool for three days and then back with him. Jacob was acting like a 3 year old and had no color change and he was not bleeding from his eyes, or ears. Also he was not complaining of any pain. The next day I called our pediatrician and she stated that she wanted to see him on Friday to make sure everything was okay and to see if she thought he needed to get tests. On Friday, I took him to Dr. Ranny and she stated that she thought he had a tare in his rectum. So Jacob is on stool softners and if he starts to bleed again after a week then we need to run some tests.

So in the last two weeks I have been in the emergency room, see the urgent care place, an orthopedic, and two pediatricians. I think we have had our share of medical treatment for a while.

I would like to thank Art Cheng for being such a great pediatrician. He called me several times through out the week to see how Jacob was doing. I love that kind of medical care we received, personal. If you are looking for a pediatrician I would recommend Art Cheng with Austin Regional Clinic.

Safari Got Mail!

2010-10-19T11:15:00.002-05:00

I do not know about you, but I love to get mail, but I love to receive packages even more. The "safari" got a box yesterday. I participated in a Halloween Swap that involved our children and not me. I got a family in New York and they got us. We filled out a questionnaire and gave the other family things that my "safari" like. The "safari" and I filled our box and Noel mailed it. Yesterday we got a ring at our doorbell from the mailman. Our box had arrived.....

The "safari" loved the box and as soon as it was opened they found the candy. You know every kid can smell candy from at least 50 yards away. The box had really neat things in it. We got books, bags, candy, stickers, peeps, and a game. We want to thank Mind Games for our wonderful box and the "safari" loved everything that was in the box. We hope that you have a wonderful Halloween and that you enjoy our box as much as we enjoyed yours. Here is a picture of everything that was in our box.

Happy Halloween! Thank you very much C& J for our box, have fun this holiday!

When It Rains, It Pours!

2010-10-16T18:07:00.002-05:00

Have you ever noticed that when something is going on in your life that is not so good that other things happen at the same time? For instance, when one person gets sick everyone gets sick. Well, it is no different in our house.

Like most of you know, last Friday I demolished Noel's car and then this Friday Jacob tried to trump me. Noel came home at lunch so that I could go clean a house and he was downstairs when he heard a thud. He knew that something bad happened because soon after the thud was the screams of Jacob. He goes upstairs to see Jacob rolling around on the floor screaming in pain.

Elijah, Esther Mae, and Jacob thought it would be good idea to put one of their mattresses up against the closet wall and climb up the mattress and then jump off. Well, we assume that Jacob was the sacrificial lamb in this endeavour. Jacob climbed up the mattress and grab a toddler rocking chair from the top shelf, when he jumped he landed wrong on his shoulder. After everyone was disciplined Noel brought Jacob downstairs and he slept on Noel's chest during nap time.

After some discussion we removed all the mattresses that where hard enough to be used as a climbing ladder and moved Jacob in the room with Joshua and Hannah; leaving the evil minds in the room together. You see, Hannah and Joshua are mellow enough together that there is hardly any trouble with them. So Jacob was given some Motrin and we let him sleep in the room with Hannah and Joshua.

This morning he woke up about 4:30 this morning crying because he was in pain. Jacob slept with Noel and I for the rest of the morning and then we decided to take him to urgent care when he could not get out of our bed. Noel took Esther Mae, Joshua and Elijah to T-ball and I went to Urgent Care with Hannah and Jacob.

Jacob has a fracture in his clavicle and has to see an orthopedic because of an AC might be torn. So on Monday I have to get him an appointment, to see what is going on and what we will have to do. Also did I mention that Noel is leaving on Sunday for Tennessee for the week because he is taking a class? I am thankful for my family that is close so I can take Jacob to his appointment. Please pray that we get seen soon in the week and that Jacob will understand that he cannot play as hard with his arm. Have you ever has to tell a 3 year old boy that he cannot move his arm and that he has to keep it in the sling and not play too hard? Let me tell you that it is hard.

Thank you for everyone that is praying for our family. We are doing well, considering we are healing and working hard to get the Firebird running so that Noel has a vehicle for travel season. Please pray that Noel and Dominic get the car up and running. Thank you Rob and Kimber for allowing us to use your vehicle while we get the Firebird running; you are great friends.

Bruises

2010-10-14T20:16:00.002-05:00

It has almost been a week since the accident and I am now getting a chance to really look at the car pictures and the pictures of my bruises from day 3. It is a hard reality to know that most people would not have made it out of the car accident that I was in. I know that God protected me and the way the accident went and where everyone was is the reason that I am alive. I might make that another post, but who knows.

Every day since the accident I have seen and felt my bruises. Getting dressed and taking a shower there is a visual reminder of how thankful I am that I am still alive. Also the "safari" and all the questions about daddy's car. My favorite goes like this....
safari: "mommy did you break daddy's car?"
me: "yes, I did",
safari: "can you fix daddy's car?"
me: "no, it is really broken and I cannot fix it."
safari: "can you fix it later?"
me: "no, daddy's car is destroyed."
safari: "mommy did you get hurt?"
me: "yes, but God protected me."
safari: "well can God fix daddy's car?"

It is nice to have the thoughts of a toddler just so honest and precise. I love those moments. I am sitting here still struck to the core of how God is wonderful and how I am grateful that I am alive. Noel and I are grateful to be together and to be able to live through experience together instead of one of us in the ground while the other raises our children.

Noel and I are grateful for all the warm wishes and the prayers that we have received from lots of people that we know and people that we do not know. We are grateful to have family that loves us and that is there for us. We would just ask that you continue to pray for my healing, that the instant replay would go away, and that we could get the firebird up and running before travel season begins for Noel.

So without further delay here are what my bruises looked liked after day 3. I know that they look bad but actually that look even worse of day 5, and now there are starting to turn yellow, which is a great sign.

What does your car look like?

2010-10-08T22:45:00.002-05:00

I think we should play a game called "what does your car look like?"

Here is what our car looks like:

I totaled the Mazda this morning. I was traveling on 183 north after Cedar Park and before Liberty Hill. It was still dark outside, I was traveling behind a BMC Lumber Supply truck when a box fell off the back of his truck. After changing lanes I decided that I would stay in a different lane then the truck. I was going with the flow of traffic when in a split second decision the car in front of me decided to change lanes without braking or using his signal. As soon as he/she changed lanes I saw the car at a complete stop trying to turn into the Summerlyn subdivision and knew that my day was not what I had planned for it. I hit that car and it pushed me into the lane with the BMC truck that swerved and rolled on its side and shot me into oncoming traffic where the passenger side of the car got hit. I was able to get out of the car and wait for the rescue crews.

For the damage that you see in the pictures I did not break anything and the only thing that I have is bruises. It was not my time to go and God knew that I was needed here on Earth. So I stopped traffic on 183 this morning going to Liberty Hill and all the people that were coming into the Austin Area. My mother even got my traffic when she was coming into town. I am grateful that I am alive and that the other people that were involved did not have serious injuries.

I appreciate all the prayers and the calls that we have received. For those of you wondering, yes I am still going to Arlington in the morning to see the A&M vs. Arkansas game. WHOOP!

What does 1100 Servings look like?

2010-10-04T07:55:00.000-05:00

This last month, we did our normal monthly cooking. I started to ask the normal people that do the monthly cooking. So this was the breakdown. I wanted a half share, my mother wanted a half share, my sister wanted a full share, Katherine wanted one and a half shares, my brother wanted a full share, Kimber wanted a full share and Koby wanted a half share. A half share is 4 servings, and a full share is 7 servings. So that comes to 1100 servings.

The menu is as follows:

Beef Stroganoff
Beer Butt Chicken
Carolina shredded Chicken
Cheeseburger Meatloaf
Chicken Pot Pie
Chicken Tandoori
Chili Lime Kabobs
Chinese 5 Spice Chicken
Cordon Bleu
Creamy Chuck Roast
Dr. Thunder Ribs
Jalapeno Blue Cheese Burgers
Kansas City Hot Wings
Lemon Herb Chicken
Peach Glazed Pork Chops
Pork Chops w/ Applesauce
Pork Tacos w/ Pineapple Salsa
Potato Soup
Sausage Lasagna
Shepards Pie
Shredded Pork Tacos
Spicy Beef Kabobs
Spicy Turkey Burgers
Tex Mex burgers
Tomato Soup

Katherine and I have been thinking about teaching people how to do this from the menu making, the shopping, and all aspects of this program. Each time that we talk to people and every time that my mother and I talk to people they seem to be interested. So we are thinking about a webpage where you sign up for a monthly menu that would include shopping list, menu, labels, etc. Who knows what will come of it, but it is an idea.

I hope that you enjoyed my picture. That was half of the food that was made. My counters were full of food as well as the island, and my dining room table.

A Weekend at the Lake House!

2010-10-01T07:27:00.000-05:00

Noel and I took the "safari" to the lake house this month to make sure that they got to swim before the weather changes. Nana and Poppy Bobby came to the lake house as well.

We arrived on Friday afternoon and the "safari" got to swim in a kids pool and just hanging out. Then Nana made hamburgers and hotdogs for dinner. The "safari" got to watch lot of TV and then got to sleep on a queen air mattress. On Saturday we rode on the boat to the sandbar. Then we had lunch and rest time before we went fishing. Everyone fell asleep for at least an hour. In the pictures you will see that everyone decided to sleep on the couch with momma except for Jacob. After nap we went fishing off the dock at the lake house. Now Poppy Bobby has learned that it is more fun for a kid if they actually get to catch the fish, so he has a fish feeder. Elijah, Jacob and Esther Mae fished and caught something. The other two did not want anything to do with the fishing, but wanted to touch the fish that were caught. Jacob caught the biggest fish with a 2 pound catfish. We had dinner and then watched some more football before coming home.

The funniest thing was that at the lake house there are not so many rules as the house. For example: there is no diet when you are at the lake house, there is no certain bedtime and you can pee on trees because there is only family at the lake house.

Enjoy the pictures.

We have a guest bedroom!

2010-09-28T07:26:00.000-05:00

Noel and I have wanted to have a room for people who come and visit us that was just theirs. Our guest bedroom for the longest time was the open game room on the second floor. I am sure that there were no complaints, but there was no privacy and no closet.

The boys moved into one room together and the girls were in another room. Noel and I decided to fix the fourth room into our guest room/sewing room. Of course with me I knew that we were going to paint the room and I wanted to try stripes. Now I have never done stripes and so I did my research and Noel was a trooper.

Here is the room before:

Boring!!!!!!

Here is the room after Noel and I spent 6 hours putting up paint tape on the walls.

Here is the room after we painted it.

I think that the room turned out nice. The closet doors were put back on and the blinds are back up in the windows. It actually looks like a normal room in our crazy house. I would like to thank Noel and Katherine for helping me with the room and for the support that I was not crazy.

T-Ball Anyone?

2010-09-25T19:43:00.003-05:00

Elijah, Joshua, Esther Mae, and Jacob are all playing T-Ball this season. The triplets are on the 3 year old team and Elijah is on the 4 year T-ball team. They got to practice only once before their first game because it rained on Tuesday. I think that they did outstanding.

I put their last name on their jerseys so they would look nice. Also we were lucky to be able to pick our numbers for the triplets. Noel picked 2,3,and 4. So I made sure that Joshua, Esther Mae, and Jacob got the number that went with their birth order. Noel told us that we should make them wear numbers all the time.

The game is only 2 innings. Each player gets to hit the ball and then run to first base and then the last batter for that team gets to bat and run all the bases. Then you switch and do that for 2 innings. I was very proud of the "safari" because they played the entire game and did not quit.

Also we used our first porta potty. We survived and I am sure that we will survive it the next time that we have to use them.

Who Doesn't Like Mail

2010-09-16T18:18:00.001-05:00

My friend, Dianna, saw this blog and thought it was a great idea. I think so as well. You get to swap your favorite things that you do with your kids with someone else. Then you get a package in the mail from someone else. I know I love getting mail and the "safari" will enjoy filling their box and receiving a box. If you want just click on the button and sign up to get on the list for this swap.

WOW! Who doesn't have a PR campaign?

2010-09-13T08:58:00.006-05:00

Noel and I were driving to church yesterday and spotted this billboard. We were shocked and upset at the same time. It is one thing to come into a new mother's room and try to get her to breastfeed because it seems to be the natural thing to do, but some women cannot breastfeed even after trying. For example I could not breastfeed because my milk was tested and it came back mostly water, like my mother.

When I was born my mother breastfed me and I was not getting enough so I wanted to nurse on the hour. My mother nursed me every hour until my wise grandmother came and noticed that I was starving and gave me her own formula that she made. I drank it and slept for 8 hours. You see my mother was breastfeeding because she was told there were no other options if she wanted to be a good mother.

After finding out that I could not breastfeed I realized that my son would be just fine and that he would still be normal and smart no matter what. When I gave birth the triplets the lactation consultant came into my room and tried to tell me that I was being a horrible mother because I was not breastfeeding even after I told her that my milk was more water than anything else. She told me that I was going to hinder my children from being smart.

When we had Hannah the lactation consultant came in and I told her that I was not going to breastfeed because of my milk and because I had 4 toddlers at home. She got the hint and left me alone.

I understand that there are benefits to breastfeeding and that if you are able to breastfeed then you should until you and your baby no longer desire it. There are some out there that cannot breastfeed and we should not be told we are horrible mothers because we cannot. It is a sad day when we are telling new mothers that they are going to hinder their children from day one; what a message is that?

As Noel and I saw this billboard we came up with some things that were just as ridiculous.

"If we had breastfed Elijah he would already have chest hair"
"If we had breastfed our triplets they would be calculus instead of addition"
"If we had breastfed Hannah she would be the Secretary of state."

From our point of view we are going to put our trust in God and ask Him to lead us in raising our children and that they would be what God wants them to be. If that is a rocket scientist or a housewife that our children would love God and be a light into this world.

Safari Birthday Party

2010-08-20T08:32:00.003-05:00

Noel and I have decided that having one birthday party makes more sense then trying to have three in three months. Also our "safari" all have the same friends. So this year we decided that school supplies/art supplies was going to be our theme, since we are getting ready to start homeschooling activities this year.

We also decided that having the party in the evening was better since our backyard is mostly shaded in the early evening. Our good friends Kimber and Rob Gilbert brought their lawn furniture and the canopy so the bounce house would be covered. The kids had a great time. We had to come inside because everyone wad red-faced. We ate dinner, we had spaghetti, fruit salad, and bread. The kids also got cupcakes and normal cake. I tried to make a bee-hive cake and it turned out pretty nice.

Rob Gilbert came over and showed everyone his police car. The kids thought that was great and got to sit in the driver's seat while the lights were flashing. I think all and all everyone had a great time.

The parents told me the next day that their children slept pretty well after being at our house and running them into the ground.

Choice!

2010-08-16T19:32:00.000-05:00

Noel and I believe that everyone has a choice to do one thing or another. Now each choice can lead to a consequence, either good or bad. Noel and I were given a choice by Pops. A puppy or a fish tank. Now think about what you would choose.

We chose a fish tank, no hesitation. The only thing is that we did not get to choose the fish tank. We gave Pops some options that we liked and we sent him fish tanks that would be good for the "safari." Like we wanted one that was big enough so that everyone could see the fish without fighting.

Pops called and stated that he got the fish tank and that he wanted to come down that day. So he came from San Antonio to help set up the fish tank. He should up and showed us that he decided on 90 gallons. The fish tank is great.

Pops took the "safari" to PetSmart and let them pick up some accessories for the fish tank. Elijah picked a dinosaur, and the others just wanted to see the fish.

So here is a picture of the fish tank.

Swim Lessons

2010-08-13T19:16:00.002-05:00

A couple of months ago we started our carpet experience and we had some trouble with people showing up on time and we were given some compensation for those mistakes. That meant that we could pay for the "safari", minus Hannah, to have swim lessons.

The lessons were Monday through Thursday for two weeks. The "safari" thought it was great and they loves their swim instructor, Stephanie. They were excited every day to go and even enjoyed the shower after the swim lessons. The kids got to "talk to the fish" and learned to swim and jump into the water. Stephanie was wonderful and she enjoyed the "safari."

Now Hannah was too young to start swim lessons at the YMCA so she swam with daddy while the others had swim lessons. Hannah enjoyed the quality time with daddy.

My "safari" say the funniest things in public!!!

2010-08-04T19:25:00.002-05:00

Pops came to our house a couple of weeks ago to give the "safari" their birthday present; a 90 gallon fish tank. After shopping with the "safari" and letting them pick the decorations for the fish tank, Pops took us all out to dinner.

We were eating and Elijah decided that he needed to go potty. He wanted Pops to take him and Pops was more than willing to go. So they walk to the bathroom to find that the stalls are both full and the only thing that is left is the urinal. Now Elijah at first was not that excited about that. Given the choice of waiting for one of the stalls to open or peeing right then; he was okay with the urinal.

Elijah pulls his pants down and Pops picks him up to pee in the urinal and that is when my funny man made his comment. He asked "Pops can you hold my penis?" Now you have to put in your head that the two stalls in the bathroom are full and they are not the only people at the urinals. So complete silence went to laughter. Pops was a little red.

As a mother I am proud that my son named his anatomy with the right term and that he made a couple of men laugh. Now that story was probably told to whomever they encountered that day. So that is a potential of a lot of laughter.

FIGS!

2010-07-16T21:48:00.000-05:00

When we bought our house we did not know what trees and bushes we had in our backyard. So Noel decided to take a bush out that was next to the air conditioning unit because it was ugly. Well behind that bush there was a little tree/bush looking thing that Noel left alone. In this picture you have to look behind the bush and you can see the fig tree but it is only about 12-15" tall. Do you see it?

I hope that you saw it, because this is what our fig tree looks like today.

Now we love our fig tree. Last year we trimmed our fig tree so that it was not hanging over the A/C unit. It grew fantastically, so much that it grew about 18" in every direction this year. We have figs all over the tree. We pulled the first fig off and we were totally surprised at the size of the fig. I put it in my hand so that you could really understand the size of it. Now most people have not eaten a really fig, but just what they had in a fig newton. Those are two totally different tastes. Our "safari" love figs and Noel and them just eat them straight off the tree. It is great.

Fireworks, Oh My!

2010-07-14T21:36:00.000-05:00

Well it is that time again, heat, food, darkness and fireworks. This year we added the "safari" to that mix. Noel and I thought it was time for the "safari" to stay up late and see the fireworks. Usually they are in bed and asleep by the time all the festivities are going on.

We went to church and had a late lunch and made the "safari" take a nap so they would last until 9:15pm when the fireworks were going to start. We had company over for the festivities and that means there was food. We had the Gilbert's and my parents with my nephew Aiden. We had bbq chicken, spiral ham, green bean casserole, potato salad, salad, and my banana pudding. The banana pudding got Rob out of bed and over to the house before he had to go to work for APD. It was great food and lots of fun with all of us sitting and enjoying all the great food.

After that Rob put his Austin Police Uniform on and let the kids see the police car and hear the sirens and listen to Rob speak through the speaker. Rob grew a crowd of kids with all the commotion.

After that we all hung out until it was time for the fireworks. The great thing about our house is that we are close to the huge fireworks show at Milburn park in Cedar Park. We got to sit in our backyard and watch fireworks, and we did not have to travel anywhere. The "safari" had popcorn, kool-aide, and goldfish for the fireworks. As soon as the first firework went off Joshua jumped out of Nana's lap and ran inside. Jacob, Esther, Hannah, and Elijah were okay with the fireworks as long as they were sitting with someone. Hannah lasted the longest and only came in when she started to get eaten by the bugs. Hopefully the "safari" will grow to like all the noise and pretty lights. They slept really well.

Bull-Riding

2010-07-12T21:28:00.000-05:00

Our "safari" love to ride on our backs. So Noel takes 3 and then I take 2, and then we switch. Now we have to be really strong to be able to do that and so we get tired and tell the "safari" that the ride is broken. The other day I decided that it would be fun to teach them to ride a "bull." (me being the bull)

This our video of them riding the bull. I love the fact that they fix my shirt before they climb on me and also they know they are suppose to only hold on with one hand, even though some think they can do it with no hands. Also there is a little pushing in the beginning because Joshua wanted a turn. It is so great to hear them laugh and see the huge smiles from this activity.

Our Secret

2010-07-09T21:05:00.001-05:00

Noel and I have been keeping a secret for about 4 months and we decided that we could no longer keep it to ourselves, so we thought that we would share it......

NO WE ARE NOT PREGNANT!!! All of you that thought that are just wrong, why would you wish that on us?

No, we had to keep a secret from one of our friends, Kimber, for her birthday. In March Noel found out that Jeff Dunham was coming to Austin and he called the usual suspects to see they wanted to go. Last year my brother Ben and his wife, Tracy went with us, but this year Tracy was going to 9 months pregnant and so they passed. Noel was talking to Rob and he said "yes" because that would be a great surprise for Kimber's birthday. Kimber's birthday is June 28th. That is right I had to keep this secret for a long time.

So Rob decided to have dinner and then we would go and see Jeff Dunham. We went to Perry's. Noel and I had never been and so we were excited to try something new, and we do not get out much and so it was nice. The food was expensive for us on a budget. We loved the food but we would go on Monday night for their special or for lunch on Friday when their famous pork chop is $10.95 and not $30.00. The experience was great and we liked the atmosphere. The restraunt is in an old bank and looks fabulous.

Jeff Dunham was good and we loved his show. Kimber was totally surprised and she has no clue what was going on. Thank you mom for coming and watching the "safari" for the evening.

First Movie Thearter Experience

2010-07-07T20:34:00.000-05:00

Our "safari" love the movies Toy Story and Toy Story 2, so when Noel and I saw that they were going to come out with the third Toy Story we knew that would be the one that we would see in a movie theater.

We were going to go to San Antonio and see it on the triplet's birthday but Pops had to work and so we decided that it would be great to see it on a weekday in the late afternoon so there would not be so many people. So we saw Toy Story on Tuesday, at 4:20 in the afternoon. Here are a few pictures of the experience that we captured.

I brought bowls and their sippy cups for the movie. Pops bought popcorn, candy and Hi-C for the movie. Each of them were excited about the seats, and the darkness. All 5 of them sat through the entire movie and not one had a meltdown, and we did not have to leave the movie. Aunt Kim, Cousin Jake were in for vacation and they shared the experience with us.

I think that we are going to a movie person, we will be a $1 movie theater family. Thank you Pops for a wonderful experience we love you and will see you soon.

You are a WHAT?

2010-07-05T20:00:00.002-05:00

Noel came home the other day and he had a newspaper clipping on the counter. While I was finishing dinner I read the article on the counter. I was taken back at what the article stated. It stated that the appraisal firm that Noel works for is not really an appraisal firm but a lobbyist firm for industry. It called Noel's company a "fox in the hen house." It also stated that his company made more money then they really did on an account.

My first response was that I did not know that I was married to a lobbyist, and that he needed to ask for a raise if one county paid the appraisal firm $500,000 for their services.

I am no longer surprised at what is printed in the paper anymore. There is really no more journalism in the newspaper world when a paper can print an article and not check the facts. Now this article was written to the editor but apparently he did not check the facts before printing it. He thought that is was going to be a good bit of gossip on the county next to them. If you want to read the entire article you can find it here.

Now here are the facts:

The appraisal firm that Noel works for is hired by the county. They appraise property so that the county can send out tax bills like you get with personal property. They also go and defend that value if it is protested. They do not represent industry, those people are not called appraisers but agents.

For example: Lets say that Noel is in charge of appraising an oil refinery. He sets up an appointment with that company so that they can have their agent and their people there when he comes. He makes an appraisal of the company and sends the county that hired his firm what he thinks the value of the company is, now that value is not based on just what Noel thinks but what the property was valued last year and what changes to the company, industry, and economy has happened. The county sends the company a bill. Now 99.9% of the time the company does not agree with the value so they have their agent call Noel to try to lower the value. As Noel puts it "I am not a negotiator, I am an appraiser." If the agent can give Noel documentation and reasons why the company that the agent represents is lower in value then Noel looks at the information and talks to the county. If the value is not settled then Noel goes before a board and explains why he put that value on the company. Then then company can send their agent to explain to the board why they think the value should be lowered. The board makes a decision and then the agent has to talk to the company. Either they agree with the board or they have the option of suing the county.

That is why Noel travels is because he has to see the properties/companies and then he has to go and validate his value. I enjoy listening to all the drama and stupid reasons that people give for why they should not pay their tax bill. I am proud of my husband and the work that he does. He comes home and sleeps at night because he is an ethical and honest person in his personal and professional life.

I know that people have their opinions but when it tries to smear dirt on a company that has been family that is sad. I love Capital Appraisals and what they have meant for this family. We know the truth.

Pops's House in May (Yeah I am behind)

2010-06-28T20:42:00.000-05:00

For the summer Noel and I wanted to make sure that we say all the grandparents on a regular basis. We try to get to Pop's house at least one weekend a month, even though he thinks that is not enough. The "safari" love Pops's and his dogs, named Yager and Bosco. Well the "safari" have renamed Yager to Lego, because that is easier to say. They do not want to be in the same room as the dogs or on the same side of the fence as the dogs but they love the dogs.

When we do see Pops we try to go to the park that is close to his house. Every time I have to remind myself that my "safari" is not normal and that they are going to climb on everything way too early and that I just need to put my trust in God that he is going to keep them safe and that my husband and Pops have good response time if something goes wrong. Hannah is no exception to that rule. As you see in the slideshow she is climbing up a ladder that is meant for "big" kids.

Pops also got the "safari" a inflatable pool along with a slip n slide. On Friday night the "safari" did really well and had a blast but on Saturday the girls decided that they were going to have a meltdown and so they did not swim in pool but were taken inside and the boys played with daddy and Pops. Hannah fell asleep inside.

On this trip we stayed two nights and we came up with new sleeping arrangements. In the past the girls have slept in pack n plays in the bathroom and the boys have slept on the king size bed. Well with the girls getting taller that is not working so well anymore so the new sleeping arrangement is that daddy and girls sleep in one bed and the boys and mommy sleep in another bed. Noel can have more room if he sleeps with the girls then with the boys because Jacob loves to sleep horizontally. It went really well and everyone got some sleep.

We look forward to seeing Pops twice in July since we did not get to see him in June because of schedule conflicts.

Lake House in May

2010-06-25T20:36:00.000-05:00

In April Noel and I started to plan our summer weekends because we knew that we would have a full schedule with monthly cooking, Pops house, lake house and anything else that we had going on, like date night, etc. So we had a date for the lake house in May and we were totally excited to get the "safari" out to the lake house this year.

About a week before we were scheduled to go to the lake house I decided to watch a little girl so her mother could go and see her husband before he left for the middle east. We agreed that it would be okay to take her with us; she had never been to a lake house and all the adventure that goes with that. So on Friday I picked her up and we headed to the lake house. On Friday night we ate dinner and played outside for a little while, fished and then we went to bed. The girls slept in one room and the rest of us slept out in the living room.

Noel got sick in the middle of the night and was out of commission for the first part of Saturday. Noel's mother and step-father were there to have a blast. Now Papa Bobby bought Elijah a fishing pole about a month before this trip and we had been practicing throwing the line and getting the fish. You see, Papa Bobby decided that he was going to make fishing as easy as possible for his grand babies. So he has a fish feeder that feeds the fish three times a day so the fish stay close to the dock. So Elijah caught some fish and Jacob caught a fish and the rest of the "safari" just wanted to touch the fish in the bucket. On Saturday afternoon while everyone was sleeping Papa Bobby and I went fishing. We caught 16 fish in about an hour and one of them was a catfish and the other where blue gill. The fish were fantastic and I loved eating every single one of them.

The highlight of the trip for the "safari" was touching the fish, looking at the fish, getting rides on the riding lawn mower, and playing in the dog kennel in the house. We are glad that everyone had a great time and that the "safari" loves the lake house. We are going in July for another trip.

Happy Birthday Nana

2010-06-24T08:34:00.001-05:00

I thought it would be nice for Nana to hear from her grand kids on her birthday. They are so cute and just want to see the video camera, but it only took one shot to get them to all be in the same place at the same time, saying the same thing.

Mom, we love you and are very glad that you near. We hope that you enjoy your birthday even though we are not there with you. As the "safari" stated we will see you on Saturday.

First Floor Remodel

2010-06-22T20:02:00.001-05:00

I know that most of you have been waiting for this post, so here it is.

About a year ago our house plumbing line decided to get clogged and to flood the kitchen and parts of the playroom and dining room. After cleaning it up and replacing the wet carpet pad, Noel and I started planning for what we were going to do. Also the fact that my carpet went from beige to zebra kool-aide stripped carpet did help in the decision as well.

Noel and I decided that it was a good time to change the carpet. Then we decided that if we were going to change the carpet that we wanted to do some things to the first floor before the new carpet was put in. The list went like this:
1. Remove Popcorn ceiling
2. Paint walls
3. Tile the fireplace
4. Tile in front of french doors and fireplace
5. Replace the carpet on the stairs with laminate
6. Sand half-wall and triangle by stairs
7. Run wires through the ceiling for the surround sound, and the new speakers in the future.
8. Fix holes and bad patch jobs on the first floor.
9. Replace the ceiling fan in the playroom, move it to the kitchen
10. Replace ceiling fan in the TV room.
11. Paint column
12. Replace baseboards
13. Wire for future light fixture above the sink

We started with one thing, replacing the carpet and it turned into a huge task; which is not different than any other project that Noel and I have done to our home.

Scraping the ceilings was not that bad and we did that in about a week. Once the ceiling were scraped Noel and I started on our own projects. I was in charge of the painting and Noel was in charge of fixing holes, running wires, cutting cement board for the fireplace, tiling the fireplace and entry-way from the french doors, putting up molding, moving ceiling fans, running wire for future electrical needs, and doing the stairs.

I was motivated to get the painting done and I did. I even painted the electrical outlets. My arms hurt pretty bad after I painted the ceiling and all the walls, but my house was looking great.

Noel wanted to know what was under the half-wall landing. It was painted white but we thought that there was a nice wood underneath. After sanding it we found that the wood was fantastic and that we wanted to stain it to match the entertainment center. Noel also wanted to sand the wall that our projection screen beams on to a smooth surface. All the sanding caused a lot of dust to fly through my house. So every night while we were cleaning we just kept telling ourselves that when it was all done we would feel fantastic and it would look great. There was a lot of dusting and washing of all items. When we did the stairs we contained the dust for the most part but we had to disconnect the fire alarms because they were going off because of all the dust.

The demolition was the fun part. We got to destroy the fireplace Sheetrock and rip the marble off the fireplace. I had fun with the hammer, wonder bar and my hands. Then after the demolition then Noel cut the cement board for the fireplace and he started to tile. Now Noel has become a great tile man because of all the other tile jobs that we have done in our home. He impressed me greatly when he started cutting tiles at 45 degree angles for the edges of the fireplace. Also his tile work was great on the floor and the thought process that he went through to make sure that the floor was smooth and uniform. Also the "safari" helped by removing the tile spacers every morning after Noel tiled a section of the fireplace.

The hardest part for me was the holes in the ceiling. Noel thought it would be a great idea to run the wires for our surround sound through the ceiling instead of under the carpet. It sounded fine until he started to cut the holes in the ceiling. He promised me that he would fix the holes.

The stairs were a challenged. We were not going to do the stairs because we were not going to pay the installer of our carpet what they wanted to charge to do each stair and the laminate was not in our budget. When we went to pay for the carpet install there was laminate of clearance and the manager sold me each box for $15 if I took all nine boxes. SOLD. You see each box was normally $54 a box. The only thing was that there was underlayment on each piece that I had to scrape off so that we could lay it on our stairs, but the savings was worth the pain and suffering of scraping the underlayment off the laminate. Also we had to cut off the front sides of the stairs as well; so I got to use the router to get the fronts off and then Noel used a chisel to remove the remaining pieces off. Noel spent a lot of time cutting each piece to make sure that it worked and when we were finally done nailing in our final piece of the stairs and we looked up at our gorgeous stairs it was well worth the time, pain, suffering and energy we used.

The carpet is a wonderful color and we love that but we have some issues with the carpet that will be another post, and all the drama of that situation. Stay tuned.

All in all Noel and I had a great time with this project. We like to make our home better and we love to do it ourselves. I think we appreciate it more because we know how many late nights we stayed up to finish it. There are a few things that we still need to do, but we had to stop because Noel starts his travel season again and so we will pick up on weekends and do what we can. Please enjoy our slideshow. The first couple of pictures are when we first looked at the house and I was pregnant with Elijah.

Helping Daddy

2010-06-20T18:23:00.003-05:00

Having children is a beautiful thing and it is a blast to see them grow and learn. But really it is great when they can help out around the house and outside. The "safari" has been learning more and more things lately that have helped Noel and I. Now if you really want to know it takes at least 3X more time to do the chore but the "safari" love to help.

The "safari" help by, setting the table with plates, spoons and glasses; then there is the undressing and dressing themselves and putting dirty clothes into the washing machine. They pick up their own toys and love to help with unloading the dishwasher. Trash day is fun, because the "safari" love to do the bulky items that we keep on top of the dryer until trash day.

Lately the "safari" has been helping outside with Noel more. They love to pick up rocks and put them in the rock pile, and they love to help him with branches. Noel and I feel that we are building character with each new learned task. We want out "safari" to know what it is like to work hard and that there is a payoff at the end of the task. I captured a picture of them all helping Noel in the backyard the other day that just made me smile.

Gift from mommy!

2010-06-01T14:07:00.000-05:00

When mom and I were in Arlington for the homeschooling convention we stopped at Wal-Mart to get some snacks. While I was there I stopped in the toddler section to get the boys some more underwear. Then I saw it, Toy Story pajamas, and they were on clearance. So I decided to the "safari" a new pair of pajamas for being good while I was gone in Arlington.

The "safari" was more than thrilled to receive a new pair of pajamas. I had to get a picture of them in their new pajamas. Esther and Hannah received frog and butterfly pajamas even though they wanted Buzz Lightyear pajamas.

Does your ATM machine sing?

2010-05-30T14:00:00.000-05:00

My birthday this year was kind of all over the spectrum when it came to emotions. The "safari" was not nice to me on my birthday but seemed to conspire to hit every wrong nerve in my body to the point where all I wanted was for Noel to come home and lock them away for a while. After nap time was over though they seemed to calm down a lot.

I decided that it was my birthday and I was not going to cook for the "safari" and so I ordered pizza for pick up. When I went to pick it up it was never put in to be cooked so I got the "safari's" dinner for free, which was nice. Then on my way home I had to deposit some money into the checking account. I put my debit card in and the ATM machine decided to start singing to me. I was caught off guard and then was really impressed with the bank that we use.

I arrived home and fed the "safari" and Colton dinner. Kerri came to pick the kids up and let me know that they were going to move Colton to a daycare so that he could interact with kids on his level. This was heartbreaking for me. Not that Colton was being moved to see if that would help with his speech and other things, but that he was not going to be in house. He had been in my house since he was 8 weeks old.

Our night ended with the Conroy's coming over and having dinner with us because they thought that I should have something special for my birthday. It was a day of emotions and I am glad that it was over and that I have to wait another year to get older.

Best Burger Joint, Ever!

2010-05-28T13:33:00.000-05:00

When mom and I were in Arlington for the Homeschooling Convention we found this old diner restaraunt. The place is called Tom's Burgers and Grill.

We walked in and knew from the smell of the food we were going to enjoy our dinner. After being seated and given a menu the hardest part was picking only one thing to eat. Mom and I decided to try the burgers; mom got an old fashioned cheeseburger and I got the mushroom and swiss burger and an order of onion rings to share. Now the family behind us ordered the Chicken Fried Steak, and when they got their meals it was enough food for at least two people. They do not skimp on portions, and they bread their steak with Ruffle potato chips.

Mom and I got our meal and were impressed from the first look and smell. The hamburgers came in paper and had grease on the wrapping. They cooked the burgers actually to how you liked it. The onion rings were the best that I have ever had. Their batter has beer in it, which brings me to the next cool thing. This restraunt does not have a liquor license and so they cannot sell alcohol but they can give it away. So since they need beer for the batter of their onion rings they offer two complimentary beers to every person or two glasses of wine. If you do not like either then you can bring your own.

If you are in the Arlington area please stop by and enjoy the meal that you will remember for a long time. I know mom and I cannot wait until we are near Arlington again.

Homeschooling Convention

2010-05-26T13:16:00.000-05:00

As most of you know, Noel and I have been praying about what we should do with our children's' education. Should we trust them in the public school system or should we homeschool. Each family has to make that decision and I do not want to make it seem that if you decide not to homeschool that you are a horrible parent; that is not the case. Not everyone can or wants to homeschool and it is an individual decision with each family.

Noel and I have been leaning towards homeschooling for several reasons, based on our children's learning to this age, political, religious, and character reasons. Now if you would like me to go into detail then I do not have any problems explaining why we are leaning in that direction. But this blog is not for that.

I talked to Noel and decided to try to go to a homeschool convention to see what is out there and where we want to go. I found a convention in Arlington that seemed to have numerous vendors, and numerous seminars that you could take. I called my mother and she stated that she would go with me. Katherine was suppose to go with us but God decided that she was going to have her baby early, so she was not able to travel with us.

Noel booked us that hotel and we sent in our registration; it was $5 for both days and then there was parking. Mom and I went up on Friday afternoon and spent the entire day on Saturday at the convention. We saw more curriculum then I thought I would ever see. It was information overload, but I think that I found the curriculum that I want to use for Kindergarten and then we will go from there. Also I found that there is a homeschooling channel that is free on the Internet. Also I found some chore charts that will great for our "safari", it is called Accountable Kids.

I am looking forward to going to the convention next year. The good thing is that this convention already has the dates for the next two years. If you are thinking about homeschooling I recommend that you go to a homeschooling convention so that you can learn what you can legally do and what homeschooling means for your family.

Aunt Kim, this one is for you!

2010-05-24T13:02:00.000-05:00

For Christmas Noel's aunt sent us a tile that has a poem on it about family and then "The Wilcoxson's" was engraved at the bottom. She sent us a stand to go with it, so that we could display it in our house. I had a better idea; when we decided to make some changes to our first floor I thought that it would be good to tile the fireplace and to incorporate the tile into the fireplace.

We know that Aunt Kim will be so proud that her present is now a permanent fixture in our home. So Aunt Kim you brag all you want and call Michael all you want, but he will tell you that he gets to see us and that all you got was a post in the blog. Do not be mad, we still love you.

The "safari" loved helping with the tiling. In the evenings Noel would work on the fireplace and then the "safari" would pick the spacers out of the fireplace in the morning. It was a family project where all family members were involved. So thank you Aunt Kim for sending us the tile and we are glad that it worked out to be a focal point of our fireplace.

Family Recipes

2010-05-22T12:44:00.000-05:00

Do you remember sitting in your grandparent's dining room and eating fantastic food. Well those are the memories that I have with my grandparents. Every time that we visited them in San Antonio there was really good food, and funny house rules that were special to grandma and grandpa. Like you got a very small glass of orange juice for breakfast, you shared soda pop, ice was frozen in milk cartons, you could ride the skateboards to the fence line but not past, and my favorite was that you do not leave the door open because we do not air condition the outside.

Food was a great thing that we all shared when we visited. Like fried tacos, fried chicken, mush, relish and apple butter. Well when I was in college my grandmother mailed me some homemade relish and apple butter. Apparently she only sent it to me; I was honored and excited. You see homemade relish is made with green tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, vinegar, sugar and jalapenos. Every relish sold in the store is made with pickles. I do not like pickles. So I rationed my relish to last me most of college, which meant that I did not share with anyone or tell anyone what it was.

Now my grandparents are with the Lord and all we have is a recipe. My family loves relish and will do almost anything for it. Our aunt Janet made relish and we all got two huge jars, which has lasted almost 2 years. So my mother and I decided to make our own relish. We found tomatoes at Sprouts, and the produce guy helped us find the green tomatoes, which meant that he got a jar of relish. So after collecting all the ingredients we made our relish. Now the secret to perfect relish is to ring out the most moisture out of the ingredients as possible. I did not have any cheesecloth so we used a bed sheet. We put the mixture in the sheet and rung the sheet until the moisture was gone. After finishing the relish we called my brothers and sister to see what it worth to them. Everyone was excited and wanted their share. Now we plan on making relish on a normal basis so that we do not have to ration so much.

The product guy at Sprouts told me the other day that he has almost eaten all the relish and that he can never again eat normal relish again. It is great on hot dogs, hamburgers, and in potato salad.

Here is a picture. If you are at my house and we have hot dogs I might let you try the wonderful family recipe that will stay in our family. You can also ask the Conroy's because between the four of us we almost ate an entire jar.

Boys have P.... Girls have a V.........!

2010-05-20T12:18:00.003-05:00

If you saw Kingergarten Cop then you are laughing because you know the line in the movie that is repeated more than once. Well I did not think that I was going to have to have this conversation until the "safari" was a little older.

The "safari" minus Hannah is potty training. They are doing fantastic and each of them have their own style. Elijah likes to do a potty dance, Joshua just wants to pee and be done, Jacob likes to put his butt as close to the water in the toilet as possible. Esther just wants to stand up and pee. The boys are trying to learn to stand and pee and Esther feels that she should be allowed too.

We had the discussion that boys can stand and pee but that girls have to sit and pee. That girls are special and get to use toilet paper every time that they go potty. Well Esther took that information and looked at me and made this comment. "Mommy but I can stand and pee!" Like even though most girls sit and pee, that she could master standing and peeing. So I had to pull the anatomy lesson out a little earlier than I had hoped. I had to stand Jacob and Esther next to each other and show that they were different.

So when Noel came home the boys decided to tell him "daddy, we are boys and we have penises." Poor Noel did not have a clue what he was suppose to say. The good thing is that my explanation with Esther seemed to work. She now does not fight with me about sitting on the toilet when she goes to the potty.

Please leave a comment and tell me what your favorite moment in potty training for you.

Have faith

2010-05-11T12:06:00.001-05:00

have faith everyone. I am still here and our "safari" is still as active as ever. Noel and I have been working on our home and we are almost done. Then I will caught everyone up and finally have some time to sit down and let you know what has been going on. Thank you for keeping us in your mind.

A new gadget!!!!

2010-04-23T12:16:00.000-05:00

Noel and I are doing some renovations to our house. You will see lots of pictures when we are done with everything. New paint, scraped the ceilings, ceiling fans, updated lights, new carpet, and some tile. One thing that we were not going to do was get a new garbage disposer. The other day our decided that it was done and did not want to work anymore.

We went to Lowe's and looked at garbage disposers, Noel found one that does not work unless the plug is in and it is also quiet. We special ordered it and it came in on Thursday of last week. On Sunday night Noel installed the garbage disposer. I had not idea how small our other disposer was until we pulled out the the Insinkerator.

Here is a picture of the old disposer.

Our old disposer was a GE and it was a 1/3 Horsepower. Also it was really loud.

Here is a picture of the new one.

This one is 3/4 Horsepower. It is 60% quieter than other disposer. It has two grind stages and can even grind bones. We tried the disposer the other night and it is quieter than my really quiet dishwasher. As a gadget person I am totally excited. Also there is safety feature, you have to put a cap on the disposer and turn it before it turns on. This is great for the 5 toddlers that I have that want to investigate everything and try everything.

Worms anyone?

2010-04-21T12:08:00.000-05:00

Lately I have been looking into composting because we are starting to get serious with gardening and why not use our "trash" to help our plants grow. As I did my research there was a huge spectrum to choose from.

So I was reading and in an article they stated that kids seem to like the worm composter and it takes less time because the worms do all the work. Of course with 5 toddlers I knew that worms would be a great first pet. A pet that I feed scraps to, I do not have to walk, clean up after, and that does not live in my house. Also would be great bait for the "safari" when they go fishing. You see they reproduce like crazy. I start with about 400 worms and in 6 months I will have over 40,000.

I found a wonderful webpage and that a great product. They are called Worm Wranglers.; I thought that the name was great. So we received our composter and then about a week later the worms came in the mail. Elijah thought it was great that the worms came from the mailman. Here is a pictures of our worms.

So if you have a garden and are looking at composting, check it out.

How do you spell that?

2010-04-19T12:00:00.001-05:00

Our family went to San Antonio this weekend to spend Pop's birthday with him. On Saturday when we were coming home I told Noel and I wanted Freebirds for dinner. Now if you do not know what Freebirds is I am sorry; you need to visit one soon. It was raining really hard and so he took his smartphone out and listed everything that he wanted on his burrito.

So I am reading what he wants and I get to this word. "Pico de Guy'o" I had to laugh. As soon as I started laughing Noel said, "I do not know how to spell that word so why not make the spelling funny."

For all of you out there that do not know how to spell that word this is how you spell it, even though the other spelling is funnier.

PICO DE GALLO

Milking What?

2010-04-16T21:12:00.002-05:00

I have a funny story that will make you all laugh even though some of you will not admit that you laughed.

The "safari" is interested in potty training more and more, because I use candy and peer pressure. You see if someone uses the potty they get candy and the others watch that person eat candy. Joshua was on that train very fast and Jacob jumped on when he realized that going potty was really not that hard.

Jacob decided that he could do whatever Elijah and Joshua were doing. Also Jacob has been watching Elijah go potty for almost 9 months now. So Jacob gets on the potty and decides that his penis needs some help so he grabs it like he has seen Elijah do a thousand times. Except that Jacob was not watching for technique because Jacob decided that he could "milk" his pee out. My mother was in town for a conference and she saw it and called me over. I had a good laugh and I knew that I had to share. Milk anyone?

Outside

2010-04-14T07:00:00.000-05:00

The weather has been great lately and the "safari" love it when they get to go outside. Recently they have played outside a lot and usually it is a sad moment when they have to come inside.

They are learning how to swing and are really enjoying the sandbox because Noel finished it and they have garden shovels now. We are so grateful for Nana, Papa, and Pops for the gift of the playset last Christmas, because they have their own park now.

Hannah loves the slide and the glider swing. She knows how to climb the ladder and go down the slide and now she is learning how to use the climbing wall because that is more fun. Jacob likes to go down the slide and jump where ever he can. Esther and Joshua just want to swing and they want you to swing them high. They will stay on the swing as long as you push them and when you stop then they try to swing themselves. Elijah likes it all. They grow up so fast and it seems like turbo speed some days in our house.

Here are a few pictures.

The Garden

2010-04-12T06:53:00.001-05:00

Noel and I wanted to try to do our garden this year. Two years ago we tried and our tomatoes did well but really nothing else. Last year was a busy year and it just never happened. This year we are trying again and hopefully we will do better.

We have two gardens. One where we planted seeds and the other where the plants are small but already have leaves. We borrowed Nana's tiller and got it home to find out that it did not want to start so we rented one. Lets just say that we have a lot of rocks in our yard. Noel has taught the "safari" that we pick up rocks and put them in a designated spot. So when the "safari" go outside to play and they find a rock they put it in the designated spot.

So in a few weeks we will start to see if we are going to be successful in this adventure or if we should stay away from gardening and just let Nana give us stuff from her garden. Here are a few pictures of one of our gardens.

The Park

2010-04-10T06:45:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago our Adult Community, Sunday School Class, had a picnic time at a local park in Austin. We decided that we would take the "safari" because it was after nap time and the day was beautiful.

We loaded the "safari", made sure that we had liquids, sunscreen, hats, a blanket and snacks. The "safari" had a blast; they are at the age where they can enjoy places we go a lot more and it is less stressful on Noel and I to do outings. Also there were lots of kids at the park so we did not get so many questions from people.

Elijah decided that he wanted to try the monkey bars which meant that everyone else wanted to do it. Noel helped them through the process and I think that they are in love with those things. Also there was a type of zip line at the park. Noel would get the "safari" on the zip line and then push them and they would hang and hold on. The "safari" must have done that at least 50 times.

You will see in the pictures that Hannah has no fear like her siblings. She is climbing up ladders that curve like a pro. Enjoy the pictures.

Funny Faces

2010-04-08T06:37:00.001-05:00

There is a show that Elijah likes to watch during naptime called Yo Gabba Gabba. I think that all the adults that I have talked to that have seen this show does not like it, but the kids seem to love it. Well on the show there is a part where they do funny faces. The other day Elijah decided to start to try to do funny faces and it caught on with the rest of the "safari."

I got some pictures of their version of funny faces. I think they all did very well except for Jacob who did not want to participate and gave me a movement but not a funny face. I will get him later. They are all getting their own personalities and expressions. Everyday I am amazed at how they are starting to become little people, that I enjoy more and more everyday.

Bluebonnets

2010-04-06T06:23:00.003-05:00

Last year Noel found the most beautiful bluebonnets and the safest place to take pictures, in La Grange, TX. So this year we made plans with our friends the Ranney's to go after church on Sunday. We met them in Bastrop, had lunch and then went to take pictures.

The bluebonnets were beautiful, but the "safari" did not really want to do anything and just wanted to whine. I got some really nice pictures of all of them, not so much with all of them together. I took hundreds of pictures so that I could make sure that there were going to be some good ones. These pictures are the ones that I choose and I have not photoshoped any of them, so they are the raw images.

Next year we have decided to make the bluebonnet experience a morning adventure when attitudes are better and the whole experience is more enjoyable. I hope that you enjoy the pictures.

Kayleigh Fiona

2010-03-31T12:20:00.002-05:00

I would like you to meet Kayleigh Fiona Conroy! She has a great story...

Kayleigh's parents, Katherine and Tim, have been friends of mine since Noel and I met. I think I met them two weeks after Noel and I started to see each other in person. They got married two weeks before Noel and I. We have been really close since we met and have been in each other's lives since we met.

Tim and Katherine were totally excited to find out they were pregnant with their second child late last year. There first child, Elizabeth, just turned 3. The pregnancy was going really well and Katherine was doing well and getting everything ready for the baby. I helped her paint the baby's room just last week.

On Sunday, Tim was on his way to Grace to help with the children's ministry when he felt that he needed to be home instead of at church. So he turned around and went back home. Katherine decided to make breakfast and sent Tim to the grocery store for some items. While he was gone, Katherine thought that her water broke, so she called her best friend in Baltimore to see if she was over-reacting. Her friend told her to call her doctor. She called Tim to see if he was close to coming home and just casually mentioned that she thought that her water had broke. Tim rushed home.

They went to the hospital and the nurse took a sample of the fluid to see if it was her water of something else. After several tests and no real conclusion they sent it to the lab. The lab stated that it was not her water, and so the nurse decided that she would check Katherine to make sure everything was okay. The mood in the room changed when the nurse had a look of shock on her face. Katherine was 5cm dilated. Katherine was only at 32 weeks.

They started Katherine on drugs to help her and the baby. On Monday night Katherine had Kayleigh and she weighed 3lbs 10 oz. So of course she went to the NICU.

Noel and I had the opportunity to go and see them yesterday, thank you mom for watching the "safari." We brought dinner and got to see the wonderful new addition to their family. She is really tiny but she is a fighter and already has her own attitude. You have to be signed into the NICU, have to scrub your arms and wear a mask. Kayleigh is on assisted breathing, but no oxygen. She has an IV for fluids and antibiotics. Also she is on a warming table because she cannot regulate her own temperature. The blessing is that she is not in an incubator and that Katherine has been able to hold and feed her. The next couple of weeks are going to be hard, because Katherine goes home today, but the baby does not.

Please pray for the Conroy's and for Kayleigh that she will do well and be able to come home. God is in control of everything and when we learn that life make more sense and we can deal with these situations.

A Sad Day!

2010-03-29T12:29:00.003-05:00

There have been some things that have been going on in our country that have disturbed me. I normally do not talk about politics or what I think about things unless someone asks me, but lately it has just gotten worse and worse.

First let me tell you that I love politics and I am well-informed. I may not know everything but I know where and how to find things. I know that everyone does not have the same beliefs as me and you might disagree but I have to talk about it and we can have a civil debate on any of these if you want. Please do not leave hate comments, if you want to discuss any of these further please leave me your email address and we will talk about what you want. Thank you in advance.

Last week, there was a story about a 15 year old girl in Seattle was went to the health clinic in her school and found out that she was pregnant. The nurse and counselor told her that if she did not tell her parents that she would not have to pay anything for the abortion. They called her taxi and took her to the abortion clinic and then returned her to school the same day. There are so many things wrong with this story. It is sad that the 15 year old could not talk to her mother about this, that they did not a relationship where the first thought would be to call her mother. That there is a clinic in the school that is giving this advice. When Noel and I write our check for our property taxes I have to pray that the money that goes to the school is not going for these services. Now I know that the public school system is getting worse and that as parents we need to be on our knees to know what to do with our precious children and what we need to do in the education part of their lives. I know that in our house right now we feel that God is leading us to homeschool. Apparently there are numerous states that do not require parental support before medical treatment can be given. Our children are being told that their parents do not know what is going on and that they need to teach us how it needs to be. The more I read and watch how our country is heading the more I feel like we are the Isrealites wondering in the desert because we cannot get our obedience in the right place. May God have mercy on us.

On another note while we were driving home from church yesterday we were behind a care that had a bumper sticker. The bumper sticker stated "I can be a Christian and be pro-abortion too" Really? How is that? First of all I do not feel that you can judge someone on their salvation because that is between God and that person but you can ask some questions? If you are a Christian how can you say that life does not start until after birth when the Bible clearly states the opposite. Here is a webpage that helps with the sides of the issue. So I feel that the bumper sticker is a sad statement that we have believers that just skip the verses in the Bible that do not apply to them or that they do not want to apply to them.

The last thing is that census. The ad campaign on television is going to cost $130 million dollars. On top of that I received two postcards that reminded me that the Census was coming and then to remind me to mail my census back. Then the census was mailed. Now how much did that cost? Well in the last census there was a population size of 297,831,960 people. Lets say that there is a family of four everywhere; so we divide 297,831,960 by 4 and you get 74,457,990. So lets say that we mailed the two postcards to this many destinations; with presorted mail it cost about 24.5 cents a postcard. So that would cost $36,484,415.10. Then you also got sent the census itself that would cost about 48 cents, that cost $35,739,835.20. Then you still have all the employees that will walk and knock on your door. The estimated cost for the Census is between $13.7 billion to $14.5 billion. What could our country do with half of that money?

It seems that everyday I read and research more about our country and learn what I was not taught in school. I would like to work really hard and sacrifice in my generation to ensure that my childrens' and grandchildrens' generations would be okay. Our founding fathers knew that our country could be great if we made sure that we were a God-fearing country and that we remembered that God needed to be in the center of our country. I find myself on my face before God more and more to ask for Him to guide our leaders and to put people in their presence to help them in the right direction. Also for our leaders to fall on their face before God every day.

My next post will be about the "safari" and will have some new pictures. Stay tuned.

Song Confussion

2010-03-18T11:40:00.002-05:00

When you have toddlers they want you to sing or tell stories all day long. That is fine if you have one or two but when you have six toddlers during the day you can really get tired of telling the same story 20 times in a day or singing the same song 20 times.

Yesterday I found out that some of the words to the songs that we sing are not the right words, let me explain. We were singing "This little light of mine." Great song and there are hand movements to it which makes it even better. For some reason one of the time that I sang it I had to stop in the middle and tell Esther to stop hitting Elijah so Joshua was singing the song with me and inverted what he heard that day. The song went something like this:

This little light of mine
I'm gonna to let it shine.
This little light of mine
I'm gonna to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

Won't let Satan blow it out.
I'm going to let it shine
Esther stop hitting Elijah
Won't let Satan blow it out
I'm going to let it shine, let it shine, let is shine, let it shine.

I had to laugh and try to explain that was not part of the song and that I was sorry that I messed the song up. I have to love it when my "safari" lets me know when I have done something that is not part of the story/song.

Big Sister Want-to-be!

2010-03-11T08:49:00.002-06:00

This week I started to watch Colton and Tadem. I did not know how the transition was going to be with a new baby in the house and with Colton being with his mommy for 8 weeks and then having to see me again. All has gone well. In fact it has gone without a major meltdown.

The funniest thing this week is Hannah! She thinks that she is a big sister now and that she has to make sure that I know everything that is going on with Tadem. She has to tell me when the baby is crying, sleeping, and where her bottle is. You cannot laugh because when she tells you these things she is so serious about it. I am glad that she is taking so well to the baby because Hannah does not like to share her time with anyone.

Hannah is growing up so fast and I just want her to be the cute little thing that she use to be, but now she is talking in full sentences, knows all her body parts, can sing her ABC's and loves to sing songs about everything. When she sings she likes to mix her favorite songs together. For instance the other day she was singing "twinkle, twinkle little star, Jesus love me, the Bible tell me so, hide it under a bush NO! Next time sing with me." She is just too cute.

Thank you for 4 Years!

2010-03-06T08:30:00.001-06:00

Last week Noel and I celebrated four years of marriage together. I have to say that it has been a fast four years filled with lots of births, laughter, sleepless nights, travel, crying, crawling, walking, eating solids, bruises and bumps.

Noel and I met on E*Harmony and have not looked back since. Here is one of our wedding pictures.

There are not enough nice things to say about Noel and what he has done in our marriage, so I will only name a few.
*Drove over 13 hours to surprise me with my engagement ring and got my parents involved.
*Made our wedding day stress-free for the most part
*Found 12 watermelons when I was pregnant with Elijah when they were out of season
*Made my pregnancy with the triplets wonderful and full of laughter
*Was a trooper when the triplets were born and needed to eat several times in the middle of the night
*Changed all the diapers when I was pregnant with Hannah because I could not smell anything foul without getting sick.
*Tells me that I am beautiful and the best wife ever at least 10 times a week.
*Lets me rant and rave about my week when he is traveling
*Takes care of the "safari" so that I can have some alone time, even though I do not go like I should
*Encourages me and prays with me

Of course there are thousands of reasons why I love my husband and sometimes the emotions that you feel cannot be expressed in words. I am looking forward to the years to come with my loving husband. Last week I made him cookies for our anniversary. He likes Scrabble and can beat me pretty bad, so I made the cookies to look like Scrabble pieces.

I love you Noel and I am glad that so grateful that God allowed me to love and marry you.

Much Deserved Rest … for someone else!

2010-03-04T22:11:00.001-06:00

Guest Post By Noel Wilcoxson

This weekend I had the honor of taking care of our 5 children by myself. You see, Jennifer and her mom went to a women’s retreat for the weekend with our church group and I, being the good husband that I am (wink wink), pushed for her to take the time off. Those of you that keep up with this blog know how dedicated Jennifer is to our children and how she doesn’t get any time off or away from our ‘safari’. So it was definitely her turn to get away and this was an opportunity for her to gather together with other women and glorify God.

While she was off enjoying herself, I was in the midst of kids who I quickly realized were much smarter and cunning than I expected them to be. You see, the last time I was in charge of all of them for any amount of time was before Hannah was born while Elijah was the only one who knew how to walk. Sure I’ve had them for a couple hours while momma went out to shop, but a weekend is a lot different than an hour.

Jennifer left for the retreat on Friday afternoon while the kids were napping. They weren’t all asleep, but thankfully they weren’t looking out the window while Jennifer and Patricia left, otherwise I would have had to deal with five crying toddlers wailing for their mommy and nana. Joshua was the only one to see the car drive away, so I decided to go upstairs and get him up from nap time. While I was up there I heard Jacob and Elijah moving around and since they weren’t asleep I decided to go ahead and get all five of them up from nap time.

I went in and they were excited to see me, but more excited to tell me that nana was here. I had to break it to them that nana and momma had left the house and wouldn’t be back for the whole weekend. This is where they began to outsmart me. Instead of getting upset or saying “no” they are home, Elijah and Jacob ran to the window to look outside. They saw the minivan and the car Patricia had come in and told me that nana was home. I was shocked that they would have the ability to reason like that at such a young age, but allowed them to go with where their minds were taking them. We went and got Esther and Hannah up and went downstairs where they found out that nana and momma were really gone.

The rest of the day was great and we ended up watching “Cloudy with a side of Meatballs” the movie until almost 8pm that night. That’s a late night for our kids who are used to going to bed around 6 at night. I am used to our bedtime routine, but Jennifer is always the one thinking ahead to what else we need to do for the kids to get them in bed. I realized that 30 minutes after dinner when I was planning to put them to bed that Jacob had not had his nebulizer breathing treatment. He likes to sit in mine and mommy’s lap to calm him down while he wears a mask and breathes in medicine. The treatment takes about 40 minutes if you wait until it is all gone, so I decided we’d watch a movie.

The kids were more interested in bouncing on the couches and rough housing with each other, which I was ok with until Hannah fell off the front of the couch. She didn’t get hurt, but it was enough of a shock to her that she cried a little. From that point on I had to be the mean parent and separate them from one another and keep them from moving. There was only slight discipline, mostly initiated by Esther’s disobedience, but we made it all the way through the movie and on to bedtime. The kids went down without any problems and slept very well.

Saturday and Sunday mornings I spoiled them with waffles for breakfast on Saturday and blueberry muffins on Sunday. They enjoyed breakfast both days and we had a mostly uneventful time. We went to play on their play set in the backyard on Saturday and went through our normal church routine on Sunday. I did forget the diaper bags for church, but it’s no surprise that I’m forgetful!

The big event of the weekend was at the end of naptime. We had been putting all three boys together in one room for the past couple of weeks because of the nose bleeds they were having. We decided that all of them together with the humidifier was the best way to go. But when Joshua got his head wound and it became infected, we separated him from the other two for naptime. They usually don’t sleep much at “naptime” but just play and run and jump the whole time. So Joshua went in a room by himself and Jacob & Elijah stayed in their room.

I am normally a very strict parent when it comes to naptime on the weekends, but since I was both mommy and daddy this weekend, I let it go and allowed them to run and jump and play to their hearts content. I figured if anything I’d let them wear themselves out and I’d get them to bed early. Unfortunately, I didn’t pay attention to the time and let them stay in their room too long unattended. Elijah & Jacob moved one of the cribs into the closet for the purpose of climbing up to the closet shelf and pull down all the “goodies” they could find. This is when I discovered that our children were really midget pirates in disguise.

They managed to get all of the bags and bandages and baby toiletries and Vaseline off the shelf. They got out the lotion and baby powder that Jennifer and I had put there ages ago and long forgot about. They smeared the lotion in the floor, dumped the full bottle of powder on a pillow, and opened the Vaseline. You can tell they got into the Vaseline because it is all over the case, but I never figured out where they put it… more excitement for another day I suppose.

So Joshua was thrilled that he wasn’t in that room. He got to watch his brothers clean it up, get discipline and be subject to daddy’s rants for about an hour. I made them pick everything up, put it in bags and place them outside their room in the hallway. We threw a lot of it in the trash and transferred the three thousand coat hangers to the other room’s closet. It’s moments like that that you wish you had all girls who don’t do things like that! I vacuumed and steam vacuumed the carpet getting out the powder and some of the lotion. All in all, it was a very stressful afternoon. The kids got dinner, a bath, their medicine and went to bed. Again, I didn’t really learn my lesson and hadn’t planned on the bath, so they went to bed around 7pm.

I was really glad when momma came home on Sunday and so were the kids. I love my little ones, but they are five handfuls and I only have two hands. I respected my wife before for the difficult job she has in taking care of the kids and our home, but it’s much different to admire from a distance versus walking in her shoes. I love you Babe, and I am so glad that you enjoy your calling. The Lord has blessed us all, but I think he gave you three times the patience and love for our children so that you could maintain your sanity.

After church on Sunday I took the kids to the YMCA so that they could play and I could work out and by the time I got home, mommy and nana had returned. Everyone was so happy for their return and Jennifer and I got to discuss both of our weekends. Her weekend was much less stress than mine, but I wouldn’t have traded places with her for anything. She deserves every bit of time for herself!

The Eye of the Storm and the Other Side

2010-03-03T19:51:00.002-06:00

Man have we been through a hurricane. Last week I thought that we were finally through with all the sickness, injury and just haze that was over our house. I was wrong. Let me recap what we have been through in the last couple of weeks.

*We were told that Hannah needed to be on medication for 6 months to let her body grow to see if her reflux would heal itself.
*The other part of the "safari" have to have ultrasounds to make sure they do not have reflux, since Hannah is the "index" child.
*Joshua gashed his head.
*Joshua got it infected with Beta Strep A and had to have it opened, flushed, packed, and now is seeing the Wound Care Clinic until it is healed.
*Esther has to be on Miralax because he Colon in swollen and does not have the urge to have a bowel movement for several days.
*Esther got an ear infection.
*Elijah got pin-worms, so everyone had to take medication and I had to sanitize everything.
*Elijah got strep on his butt.
*Joshua had to take medication because his sinuses would not clear.
*Jacob got put on breathing treatments for his wheezing and antibiotics.

That is it. I feel that we hit the eye of the storm last week and then finally got through the rest of the hurricane on Friday.

I signed up to go on the Women's Retreat and all this happened. On Friday I did not want to go on the retreat because my "safari" was just not doing so well. I prayed all day Friday on what to do and then Noel made a comment that made me go. He stated that I needed this and needed to go.

I went on the retreat and I am glad that I did. The "safari" is doing great and hopefully I will not have another hurricane for a long time. We are alive and happy. Thank you for everyone that prayed and kept up with all the drama and doctor's appointments, and for all the Nana's that sat at home while I took someone to the doctor, emergency room or Wound care.

Global Warming, What?

2010-02-24T11:48:00.002-06:00

So Austin had signs of global warming yesterday when it snowed. Whatever! It was colder in Austin (40) then in Vancouver (48) yesterday. Maybe that is why so many countries are backing out of the "global warming" lie. Enough about politics.

Yesterday was a beautiful day in the Austin area. It snowed. When the "safari" woke up on Tuesday the snow had just began to fall. The snow was wet and did not stick to the ground all that well. We got the "safari" in clothes and let them stand in the front yard and touch and eat the snow. Jacob did not think it was so neat because it started to touch his head.

About an hour later it started to snow hard, with big flakes and the snow started to stick to the ground. We dressed the "safari" in layers of clothes, made sure they had gloves, hats and coats on. We went outside. The "safari" thought the snow was great and thought it was even better when Nana taught them how to make snowballs and how to throw them. The "safari" started to get cold and so we headed back inside. Hannah's lips were turning blue and she was crying because we had to go inside. Here is a picture of the clothes that came off of five toddlers when they stepped in the door. It took a lot of time to put the clothes on (gloves-50 fingers).

We wanted to thank God for letting us have some winter fun even though it is February. The "safari" had a blast but I think that Nana had the most fun. Enjoy the pictures.

Hurricane Season

2010-02-18T22:19:00.002-06:00

I thought that I was in a down-pour only to find out that we are in hurricane season.

Joshua had to go back to the emergency room on Tuesday because his face was swollen and there was a lot of redness around his eyes and nose. After only being in the waiting room for 3.5 hours this time we were seen by a physician. He cleaned Joshua's wound and told us that we needed to make an appointment with the wound care people in two days.

This morning Esther and Hannah woke up with fevers and coughs that did not sound so good. We went and saw our pediatrician, Dr. Rane Nishi. We found out that Esther has an ear infection and Hannah is fighting some kind of bug. Then this afternoon I took Joshua to the wound care facility and got Joshua's head looked at. The wound looks good and was cleaned and redressed. He has to go back on Tuesday to see the progression of this wound.

I called Pop's, Noel's dad, on our way home and was discussing how things always happen when Noel is out of town and during travel season. We also discussed how when Joshua gets older his scar will probably be hidden by his hair and how the store will be like the fish that got away. His story will be about how we had the dog lick his wound, it got infected, no one was around to drive him to the hospital so he had to drive himself.

Noel is home and hopefully we have had our hurricane quota for a while. Thank you for all the emails, text messages, and phone calls asking about Joshua. Joshua is doing great and I thank God everyday that he is such a mellow child.

When It Rains It POURS!

2010-02-16T12:00:00.004-06:00

I have always heard that saying and thought that the way our lives were that was the NORM. I now understand that what that saying means is that when it rains you can handle that but when it starts to pour that is when you cannot handle life by yourself anymore and you need help.

Last week was the start of the rain. Joshua and Elijah with bloody noses. We have now put a humidifier in their room and make sure that we use petroleum jelly in their noses when they sleep. Then we had Joshua split his head open on Saturday and got that fixed. On Monday Hannah had her appointment where we found that we have to get all of our children tested and that he wants Hannah on antibiotics for 6 months then get her tested again and go from there. Monday we also went to see our pediatrician because Joshua had a high fever. When we got there we found out that our pediatrician was off and that we had to see another pediatrician in the office. She stated that the high fever might be from some redness in his ear and she wrote us a prescription.

After dinner I went and got the prescription filled and took Joshua with me. When we got back Noel changed Joshua and noticed that there was some puss coming from his head. Well that means bad things, so Joshua and I went to Dell's Children Hospital only to find out that everyone was there. We were at the emergency room from 8pm-3am. After we were taken to a room the doctor came in and said that his head looked bad. He asked what happened and I told him the story. You see with open wounds there is a 1 in 100 chance of infection no matter how careful the doctors are. I should have know that we would be that 1 we always are. 1 in 100 get pregnant on birth control, that was us. 1 in 9 million have the spontaneous triplets we have, that was us. 1 in 10,000 get pregnant when both parties are using protection, that was us. So why would we not be the 1 in 100?

So the doctor told me that they would give him a drug called Ketamine. This drug will allow the doctor to do what he needed to do without Joshua feeling it and without him being knocked out. So they gave him the drug and then the doctor cut open the head wound, flushed out the puss and then packed the wound. Put some gauze on his head and wrapped his head. Now we have to go back tomorrow to see if the infection, cellulitis and abscess are healing or if they have to do the procedure again. They also put him on a strong antibiotic that he had to take 3 times a day for 10 days. I know that the medication costs a lot of money if you do not have insurance, thank God we do. Here is a picture I took of Joshua in his gown in the waiting room with his puss coming out of his wound, and he is sleeping in my arms.

On top of all of that my mother is out of town and Noel left early this morning for another week of travel. I am hoping for some sunshine in my future. I would like a day here or there.

Here is a picture of Joshua from this morning. The good thing is that he is sleeping right now; he had a horrible and long night.

Bloody Mary vs. Bloody Joshua

2010-02-14T22:10:00.002-06:00

A Bloody Mary is:

1 1/2 ounces (1 jigger) vodka
1/2 cup tomato juice
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
Worcestershire sauce to taste
Tabasco to taste
1 celery stick for garnish
1 lemon wedge for garnish

A Bloody Joshua is:

1 Gashed Forehead
1 Cleaning Solution
1 tube of "Skin glue"
1 Cherry Popsicle
1 Bloody Nose
1 McDonald's Ice cream Cone

Now I do not know about you, but I will take a Bloody Mary any day. So here is the story and at the end will be the pictures.

We went and see Pops this weekend. The "safari" was thrilled to see Pops and the doggies. On Friday after naptime we drove to San Antonio to spend the evening and then all day Saturday with Pops. Friday went well and the "safari" woke up bright and early on Saturday. Pops got the "safari" bananas, strawberries and donuts for breakfast because that it what they asked for.

Pops had to run some business errands and called Noel around 10 am to see what we wanted to do for the day. We thought that the zoo would be a nice thing to do. Noel and I got the "safari" dressed and ready for the zoo, when Joshua decided that he wanted to see the emergency room instead. He was running down the hallway, tripped and slammed his forehead into the window sill. I heard the thud and knew that it was not going to be good. I ran to Joshua as he is holding his head and blood is coming out between his fingers.

I ran into the kitchen grabbed some paper towels and put as much pressure on his head as I could. I moved the paper towel and realized that there was NO band-aide that was going to fix the gash in his head. We called Pops to see how close he was. Pops ran into the house and we ran out of the house and into the van. Noel drove to the nearest hospital and I sat in the back holding my child. I walked into the emergency room at North Central Baptist Hospital. The receptionist asked me two questions, what happened and what is his name. We sat down just long enough for Noel to park the van. We got called and were asked some general questions about Joshua to make sure that he was not allergic to any medications. They directed us to a room. We sat in that room for no more than 5 minutes. The pediatric emergency room physician, Dr. Schmidt walked in and looked at Joshua's head. She told us that she could glue it shut and that her nurse was going to clean the wound and she would be right back. Her nurse walked in cleaned the wound and then Dr. Schmidt walked in. She had the nurse hold his wound together and then she glued it shut, and put some terry strips on. She left the room for a minute to return with a cherry Popsicle for Joshua. The entire time Joshua watched Monsters vs. Aliens.

Now I want to make this clear. We walked into the emergency room and was on our way out in less than 30 minutes. This hospital did not care about insurance until we were done and cared more about my child then anything else. Noel and I were impressed at the service and true concern for our child.

After leaving the hospital we returned to Pop's house and with the rest of the "safari." When the "safari" ate lunch they wanted to go to the park and so that is what we did. While at the park Joshua decided to have a nose bleed. When that drama was over we decided that ice cream would be good. We adventured to the the McDonald's and had our very first ice cream cone. It was an experience. The "safari" did great with the ice cream, but enjoyed the experience more when the ice cream was put into a cup and they were given a spoon. Hannah ate her ice cream before everyone else and was very strict that no one was going to get her spoon or help her in anyway.

Our day was full of drama, laughter and lots of love. I am grateful for Dr. Schmidt and how we were treated and that Joshua is a mellow child. We returned safely back home and are looking forward to our next adventure with Pops.

Here are some pictures of our experience. You will see the pictures of Joshua's head, the window sill, and the "safari" eating ice cream. They were taken with Noel's cell phone.

Blood and More Blood

2010-02-11T14:25:00.002-06:00

When you get married you do not think to ask your future spouse about all the genetic things that your children might have or traits that your spouse had as a child that you might get in your children.

I never thought to ask Noel if he had bloody noses as a kid. Well I wish that I had. You see when I was growing up my brothers and I played hard and we had bruises and scratches and on occasion a serious injury but we were and are not bleeders. Apparently Noel is.

With the weather being dry and the heater being on in the house our house is really dry. So Joshua and Elijah have been getting bloody noses. Elijah came into our room on Monday at around 3:30 a.m. with both his hands covered in blood and his face. Now as a mother that is not something that you want to wake up to. Noel was the calm one and cleaned Elijah up and got his nose to stop bleeding. The very next morning the same thing happened.

Last night we were on our way to bed when Jacob started to have a night terror. I went in to see if I could calm him down without waking him up totally from his sleep. Noel walked in and asked if I had seen Joshua. He was sleeping so I had no idea what he was talking about. His face was covered in dried blood and he was sleeping. We woke him up to clean his face and his nose started to bleed. It took over 30 minutes to stop the bleeding. Also the bleeding was not slow but fast and he was swallowing his blood from his nose. I was scared to death but Noel was calm. We put the humidifier in their room and it seems to be helping. We will live with that humidifier until the air changes or the temperature outside does.

This morning I was talking to Noel's mother and she stated that Noel had the same thing. Yeah for me! I am going to have bleeders. I am just glad that I have the stomache for it because with 5 children in the same stage in life there is going to be lots of moments for bleeding to occur.

Sorry there are not pictures because that is not something that I want to share with everyone. Know that Joshua is fine. There is never a dull moment in our lives.

This Week

2010-01-30T07:12:00.002-06:00

It seems like I have not blogged in a while, so I thought I would let you know what we have been up to.

We joined the YMCA last week and so the "safari" and I have been enjoying that experience. The triplets and Hannah get to play together with other children and then Elijah gets to play on this 2-3 story indoor playscape. Mommy has enjoyed the STEP classes that are offered, but have not enjoyed the pain the next morning. Also I am in a Bible study at Grace and the "safari" gets to play with more children.

Hannah got sick this week. So we went to see our favorite pediatrician, DR. Rane Nishi. Hannah has strep throat and another UTI. I am telling you we cannot get to February 15th fast enough. They had to put a catheter in her and she fought hard for that not to happen. Then they had to swab her mouth so she was not a happy camper at all.

Noel again traveled this week. I say that like it was just a once in a while thing, but it is not. He travels a lot more in the next couple of months. It is nice to see him and the "safari" have really missed him this year more than last year. Jacob is having the hardest time. The other night he woke up screaming for daddy. I tried to comfort him but he did not want anything to do with me; he wanted daddy. So daddy is on call when he travels for a phone call in the middle of the night to talk to Jacob. Please pray that Jacob can process travel season better.

Well I think that is all that happened this week. I will try to blog more, but of course who knows what next week will bring. I am also going to try to get the "safari" to sing their ABC's on the video camera. It is too cute.

Poor Hannah

2010-01-23T12:43:00.005-06:00

I took Hannah to the doctor's a couple months ago because she had a fever and was not feeling well. Our pediatrician told us that she had a UTI (urinary tract infection). Well if a small child gets a UTI they usually want to get them checked out to make sure that the urine is moving in the right direction and not refluxing.

Yesterday Noel and I took Hannah to Dell's Children Hospital to see the Children Imaging center for the ARA (Austin Radiological Association). Hannah had an ultrasound of her kidneys. The people at the imagine center were fantastic. They had fish circling the room. Hannah just laid there and let them do their thing. Well that was the easy test of the day. After that she had to get a VCUG. That is where they put a catheter in and shut dye into her bladder, take pictures and then get her to release that dye. They strapped her to a table, rotated her and took some pictures with a massive machine. Hannah was not thrilled to be restrained. Then they wanted her to pee, well being my daughter, she decided that she was not going to pee for them. They poured about 4-5 cups of warm water on her before she could not resist anymore.

We got the test results back and Hannah has stage III Vesicoureteral reflux. Let me explain: After your kidneys process your fluids they go down into your bladder, well that fluid is sterile when it goes down. When your bladder is full then you pee, while your body waits to pee that sterile fluid becomes contaminated. When you pee you are suppose to release that pee in one direction. Well with Vesicoureteral reflux some of that contaminated pee goes the wrong direction, back to the kidneys. The stage that you are given is determinant on how far the fluid goes up to the kidneys. Hannah has a stage III which means that the fluid goes all the way to the kidneys. This is not good.

We are seeing a pediatric urologist on the 15th of February to talk about our options. Now there is a chance that with medication that Hannah will grow out of this but there is also a chance that she will have to have surgery to fix the problem. For right now Hannah is on a low-dose antibiotic and will be on it until we see the urologist.

Please pray that Hannah will stay healthy and not have anymore UTI's and that she will be healed by either time or a skilled surgeon. The ultrasound showed that there has not been any significant damage to the kidneys. I will provide you some information through links so that you can learn more. Please keep her in your prayers.

Here is a great webpage that explains Hannah's condition.

Video Material:

Mother's and Daughter's

2010-01-18T07:05:00.002-06:00

Over the last several months my mother has been on my mind and in my prayers more frequently. The other day I was thinking about all the things that I do with my "safari" that my mother did with us when we were kids.

**Being a stay at home mother
**Cooking and baking with the "safari"
**Teaching them to be polite and compassionate
**Teaching them that we are a family and everyone needs to help
**Discipline

Well the list could go on forever. One of the traits that I have taken from my mother is the need for my surroundings to be clean and orderly. I personally cannot live in an environment for too long that is in disarray. My mind starts to tell me that I need to clean and where to start and I can tell about how much time it will take me to do so. Now I have a cleaning schedule and for the most part that schedule is followed, but there are times when I cannot clean because I need a day of me time when the "safari" is sleeping and when Noel is out of town for several days in a row.

On Saturday I went to my mother's house to do a daughter thing. My mother has been sick for the last several weeks. She started out having bronchitis and then moved to phenomena and then something else. Well all this to let you know that my mother should not be doing anything but sitting and making sure that her oxygen level is good. So I went to clean my mother's house; I did not call ahead of time I just showed up because if I had called she would have stated "no, my house is clean." You see my mother and I have the same thing in common we do not ask for help easily. The entire time that I was there my mother was trying to help me clean her house.

I have thought about that the last couple of days and realize that I would do the same thing. I want to be the Proverbs 31 women and do not want anyone to help me, but sometimes you do need help and you should let people help you if they offer or show up at your door step.

Thank you mother for teaching me to be that Proverbs 31 women and hopefully we can learn together that it is okay to ask for help when we are in need of it. I hope that you are feeling better we love you and cannot thank you enough for all the help that you have given us. You are a lifesaver when Noel is out of town. We love you and the "safari" cannot get enough of you.

Peep Show

2010-01-10T19:29:00.000-06:00

In the last couple of weeks we have let Elijah have the opportunity to pee in the upstairs toilet at nap time. The other day I was downstairs doing chores and heard the toilet upstairs flush. I smiled because I was so proud that Elijah was using the toilet.

About 30 minutes later I heard a knock at the door. I was curious because I was not expecting packages or company. It was one of our neighbors. She had a smile on her face like she had been laughing. I asked if I could help her and she went on to tell me that Elijah was in the window with nothing from the waist down. As I tried not to laugh she stated that we must be potty training. I thanked her and went upstairs.

Elijah was standing in the window watching the cars go by naked from the waist down. Noel bought some window tint about a month ago. We are going to have to put that up so if it happens again the outside world will not know that Elijah is naked because they will not be able to see in through the window.

What is your most embarassing moment that your child had done to you?

Two Squares

2010-01-09T19:21:00.002-06:00

Esther is really getting the hang of potty training. She tells me when she needs to go and very seldom has an accident. I bought her panties today; she is totally excited that Monday she gets to wear her panties.

With potty training it seems that my "safari" likes to pee when I am in the middle of something. They other day I was in the middle of something and Esther needed some toilet paper. She cannot reach it because her arms are not long enough. The first thing in my mind was to send Elijah in the bathroom to help her. The first time he gave her one piece of toilet paper. So the next time I made the comment "Elijah give Esther two squares."

Later that day Esther stated that she needed to go to the bathroom and as she was in the bathroom the boys come to me and say "Esther needs two squares." I know it is my fault, but I laugh every time that Esther has to go to the bathroom because the boys state that she needs two squares.

Trash Day

2010-01-08T19:00:00.000-06:00

Tuesday morning is trash day in our house. Which means that the "safari" helps with the trash. Throughout the week we put the empty boxes, milk containers and other bulky trash items on the dryer so that it does not make the trash can fill faster.

The "safari" gets to take these items to the big blue trash container outside. They think this is fantastic and every Tuesday morning they are jumping off the walls. Well as you might know it has been really cold outside in the mornings and so I had to dress them a little more than just Crocs and PJ's.

I think that it is great that we are teaching them early that this is a family house and that everyone has to help keep the house clean.

Soon they will be unloading the dishwasher and doing laundry. Right now we pick up our toys, which is a post for tomorrow, put our dishes in the sink, put our clothes in the laundry basket, pick up our rooms, and take out the trash. They also like to push the buttons on the dishwasher, washer and dryer to start their cycles.

Happy Birthday Sean

2010-01-07T18:00:00.001-06:00

Today is Sean's, Noel's brother, birthday. The "safari" love saying "happy birthday" any chance they get. You see they have a rabbit in the playroom that if you press the belly it says, "happy birthday." So they have been saying happy birthday to everyone and everything.

Sean we hope that you have a wonderful birthday and I thought that I would send you a video of our "safari" saying happy birthday. Just think one day you will hopefully have your own children so they can say happy birthday to you, until then you have our "safari." We love you.

Kriss Kross in a new generation!

2010-01-06T18:00:00.001-06:00

If you know who Kriss Kross is then you will understand this post. If you do not know who Kriss Kross is please let me explain. Kriss Kross was a group in the 1990's that were two boys who were rappers and put their clothes on backwards. So as soon as I saw this picture that is what came to mind.

The "safari" can now dress themselves, which is fantastic. Each morning after breakfast the "safari" gets to take their PJ's off and then gets to put clothes on. Now I try to make the clothes easy to put on, no buttons or zippers on pants. With each new day someone puts something on backwards, but I cannot fix it because the "safari" is so excited that they did it themselves. I am proud that they can dress themselves and I do not have to do it. Now if only I can teach them to use the washing machine.

Two Peas in a Pod

2010-01-05T17:00:00.000-06:00

Two peas in a pod. That is all I can say about this picture:

This is what Noel and I saw the other morning when we went to let them out of their room. Esther likes to crawl into the crib with Hannah. You have to love sister love. I just hope that this is a beginning of a great relationship. You have to love each of these moments when all you can do is show your spouse and laugh.

What It means to have multiples in public!

2010-01-04T17:50:00.000-06:00

Ever since Noel and I found out that we were having triplets we have been asked several questions and more than half more personal than would be asked to a family pregnant with just a singleton. To give you some of the questions that we have been asked:

1. Were you on fertility treatments?
2. Wow your hands are full!
3. Oh, wow, bet you're done now, right!
4. Whoa, and I thought one was bad!
5. Are your (boy/boy/girl) triplets identical?
6. My cousin's friend's sister's neighbor who lives over in Winchesterfieldsville had triplets etc.
7. Have you seen that show.. Jon + Kate?" or worse "Wow a couple more and you could be Octomom
8. Can I take a picture of your babies/kids?
9. I bet it gets annoying when people ask you all kinds of questions when you're trying to get stuff done, huh?
10. You know how this happens right?

To name a few. Since our "safari" walks where we go we get lots of stares. What it feels like we are in a parade and we are the only entry in the parade. Now the "safari" is too young to know that it is not normal to be stared at wherever we go. It happens everywhere we go church, store, parks, etc. Since my "safari" are so close in age they are all put into the same situation.

Most of the time Noel and I try to be as polite as possible and if the person that is making the comment seems to be just curious and not trying to pry we let them talk to the "safari" and we answer some of their questions. We like grandma's who like to say hello. But that is not what happened the other day at Wal-Mart.

After Sunday church I took the "safari" to Wal-Mart without Noel because he was working hard on the play set. I went to Wal-Mart to do my shopping to get the "safari" out of the house. Hannah was in the basket and the other four where walking on their animal rope. We were doing great until we where in the chip/soda aisle.

We were walking down the aisle and I noticed that the weight distribution in the line changed suddenly. I turned to find a male trying to pick up two of my children from the line. Now let me tell you that this man did not try to start a conversation with my "safari" or with me first. So the momma bear came out of me, but the filter was turned on because my "safari" was standing there. I told this man in the loudest voice that I could make, "At what point did you see the 'free petting zoo' sign above my children?" He continued to stand there. I made several comments until the store manager made it to the aisle and I let him know that I was not pleased that I could not shop in store without being assaulted. The man never apologized for trying to pick up my "safari." We did not finish our shopping but bought lunch for the guys and left.

After several days and several thoughts that went through my mind was that this would never happen if I had singletons, or my "safari" was not so close in age. I felt sorry for my "safari" that they cannot be left alone when we go somewhere. Are we suppose to stay inside so my "safari" is not stared at, pictures are not taken, people do not ask stupid questions? NO, we not going to stay inside but we are going to live our lives and our "safari" will continue to walk with each other on their animal line and not be shoved into strollers or shopping baskets to make it easier on me, because they are people too no matter what other people think.

I struggle with my comments that I want to make to people when they ask me stupid questions, or when they try to touch, hold, pick up my "safari." I have to ask God to help me with my tongue when we leave the house and to make me humble and compassionate with people even though they do not have filters. Noel and I pray that our "safari" will understand that they will be looked at through out their childhood and that they are unique but still normal.

For all you that like to stare and ask stupid questions, please put on some kind of filter until you get to know us. Just because we have multiples and children close in age does not mean that all questions are good and no question is off limits. We are human and have personal lives just like you do. Ask A question and move on.

Car Seat Cover

2010-01-03T20:20:00.001-06:00

Christmas Eve we took the "safari" to Nanna and Papa's house. When the "safari" got into the van they tracked the mud that was in the driveway into the van and into their seats. So of course we had to take the seats out and wash the covers.

Elijah's car seat cover has seen better days. So when we took the covers off I knew that his cover would not make it through another wash cycle. I looked on the web to see if I could find a replacement for his car seat. The ones that were made for his car seat ranged from 65.00 to 179.00. That is right, why not just buy another car seat from Wal-Mart. Of course I looked at the car seat cover and realized that I could make him a new one.

I went to Hobby Lobby and found the material that I wanted and went home. After taking the old car seat cover apart, I went to work. It took me about a day and a half of work, me working when the "safari" was asleep to finish the car seat cover. I found that I could just buy a universal car seat cover for about $30 after I was done with mine. I only spent about $25 on mine and I think that I did pretty well since all I had was the old car seat cover.

After finishing my car seat cover I was sad that I did not take a picture of the old car seat cover so that you could see the difference in the two pictures. So all you get is one picture the after picture of what the car seat looks likes now. I have to say that I am pretty proud of myself and I hope that Elijah likes his new cover and that it lasts for a while.

Christmas Card Love

2010-01-02T20:13:00.000-06:00

I love Christmas for several reasons, but one of them is for the Christmas cards that we receive. Each year we go to the mail box hoping to receive a Christmas card that we can read and hang on the cabinets. This year we were excited because we received several Christmas cards/letters. I love the letters that tell you what has happened in that family for that year and what everyone is doing.

My favorite this year was from the Tanner's. You see their Christmas card was an OOPS Christmas card because Jamie misspelled Christmas. She spelled it Chrirtmas. In her letter she explained that the mistake was because she was trying to do the Christmas Cards with all three boys.

Our family sent out 100 Christmas cards this year. The great thing is that we only paid for postage due to a website having two different promo codes going on at the same time. We got 100 cards sent to our house for $0.00. Those are the best Christmas cards ever.

I took a picture of the LOVE that we received this year from friends and family. How many will we get next year?

ACLU, Merry Christmas

2010-01-01T21:02:00.000-06:00

About a month ago I received an email that the ACLU was trying to get "Merry Christmas" removed because it was against some religious beliefs and that "Happy Holidays" was more politically correct and religious sensitive.

A couple days later I read an advertisement that the ACLU was trying to get "Merry Christmas" removed and that if you believed in Christmas and the true meaning that you should send the ACLU in your area a "Merry Christmas" card to remind them what the true meaning of Christmas is.

I decided that was a great idea and so I sent one of our Christmas cards to the local office in Austin. Well apparently they received hundreds if not thousands of Christmas cards because I received a response from the ACLU. They gave me a letter that was more than 4 pages long on how they have protected the religious freedoms their entire existence and that they just want all religions to feel free in this country and that is why it would be better to say "happy holidays" but at the end of the letter they wanted me to feel special and they wished me a Merry Christmas.

I found it heart breaking that we are a country that has become so politically correct that we are willing to give up our freedom to say "merry Christmas" because we might hurt someones feelings. In this family we will ALWAYS say MERRY CHRISTMAS no matter what any political organization might want. When we take Christ out of Christmas or replace him with Holidays then we are selling our beliefs short and we need to stand for what we believe even if it is not the Politically Correct thing to do. I would rather share my faith with someone then sit silently because I might offend someone. When I stand before God and he asks me why I did not witness to someone I do not think "I was trying to be Politically Correct and I did not want to hurt some one's feelings" is going to make God happy.

MERRY CHRISTMAS.

The Playset, Oh that much work!

2009-12-31T17:12:00.001-06:00

Pops, Noel's dad, asked us about three months ago if he could buy the "safari" a play set for Christmas. I stated that was fine. Well when Noel and I were on vacation Pops and us went and looked at play sets. We looked at Sam's, Lowe's, Toys r Us, and other department stores. Pops looked at Rainbow which wanted him to pay over $6000 for a play set. The ones that we saw did not have the support structure that Pops wanted, and Rainbow was smoking crack for what they wanted to charge.

I got onto the Internet and started looking for play sets. We found one at Gorilla that was what we wanted in support and there was no cement needed. So we picked out a play set and this is the one that we picked.

It is beautiful. Noel and I were excited. The delivery of the play set was the beginning of the fun. The play set was delivered by a freight liner. There were 8 boxes and the total weight of the boxes were over 1,300 lbs. So after the delivery we looked at the instructions and called Pops to let him know that it was delivered.

Pops came over on December 16 to cut the grass where the play set was going. Then he came back on Friday the 18th to get all the grass up. Well it did not come up as easily as we had hoped. So there was not much work done on Friday. Noel and Pops found a machine at Home Depot that would help with the digging of the ground.

On Saturday, Noel went and rented the machine that we needed. He dug the ground until about 11:30 when I asked him when the dump closed. We found out that the dump closed at noon on Saturday, so he left to dump the grass that he had dug up. I fed the "safari" and then went outside to play with the machine and did the rest of the digging. Also during nap time the Kiddie Mulch was delivered. We had 18 cubic yards of mulch dumped in our driveway. The "safari" thought that was pretty cool. We put some of the mulch in the backyard on Saturday and we got up the the first support beam up on Saturday. My brother Ben and Noel's brother Sean came over on Saturday to help and realized that they would need to come back on Sunday as well.

Sunday was the day that the play set got put up. The webpage stated that it can be put up in 8-12 hours, but the reviews stated anywhere from 2-3 full days. We are happy to state that the play set was put together in 12-15 hours, which is not too bad. The play set was the easy thing to put together. The hard thing was the digging the ground, laying the top soil and moving the mulch.

Monday, my dad and Noel worked on the slides. On Tuesday night Noel and I did the top soil on the the support cement blocks. On Wednesday night Noel and I did the mulch, and Thursday night we made sure the mulch was raked so that we could show the "safari" their present. You see the "safari" had not seen the backyard since the ground was dug up, the blinds had been lowered all week and they have been kept inside all week.

All the nanna's and pappa's and Pops came over on Christmas day around 3 pm for the big reveal. We caught it on tape. Here is the video.

We would like to thank Pops and Nanna and Papa Hensley for contributing to the play set for the "safari" this Christmas. The "safari" is thrilled and still excited about playing on it when they get a chance. Even though it was a lot of work and Noel and I were exhausted every night it was worth it when they saw their present.

Here is slideshow of the progression of our backyard for the play set. Thank you for all that helped with this endeavour and for being willing to help and be away from your wives during the Christmas season. We appreciate the time and the "safari" love you very much.

Happy Birthday Pam

2009-12-30T15:30:00.002-06:00

It is my little sisters birthday today. Since she never answers her phone and you have to leave a message every time I thought that we would send her a video message instead. I hope that you have a wonderful birthday and that your day was stress-free. I know that is not possible with three small children but one can wish that for you anyway.

Jesse Tree!

2009-12-29T16:53:00.000-06:00

Noel and I have been looking for what we could do to make Christmas more about Christ and not so much about Santa and presents. Last year our friends the Carrell's started to do a Jesse Tree tradition, so I looked into that and thought that would be a great tradition to start.

What is a Jesse Tree?

Advent is a time of waiting, a time of anticipation and preparation for the coming of Jesus. There are many ways to get ready for Christmas. One way is through a Jesse Tree.

What is a Jesse Tree? It is a tree branch decorated with symbols representing the stories of people in Jesus’ family tree. In Isaiah 11:1 we read, “A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.” Jesse was the father of David, Israel’s greatest king. And it was from David’s lineage that Jesus came. That’s where the idea of using a Jesse Tree to celebrate Advent came from. Before a symbol is hung on the branch, a Bible passage or a story from a story Bible is read.

“The Jesse Tree is a unique Advent tree that can be very useful and fun for teaching children about the Bible at Christmas time. The Jesse Tree represents the family tree, or genealogy of Jesus Christ. It tells the story of God’s salvation plan from creation and throughout the Old Testament, to the coming of the Messiah. The name comes from Isaiah 11:1, “Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.” (NASB)

Each day of Advent an ornament is added to the Jesse Tree, any small tree will work fine, and a correlating scripture passage is read. These symbolic ornaments each represent a prophecy foretelling of Christ, ancestors in the lineage of Christ, and various symbols of Christianity. “

*Adapted from About.com

Cheryl's mother, Colleen, decided that she was going to make ornaments for the Jesse tree and that we could buy them. Noel and I thought that this was a great idea since we wanted to make it a tradition and we could use the ornaments year after year. Here is the webpage where you can order the Jesse Tree ornaments or get more information.

We used this devotional and then added some of the other ornament options into the mix. This year we did 25 ornaments, but we will get the other 11 ornaments next year and do the entire lineage from creation to the birth of Jesus.

We made it through our 25 days and the "safari" looked forward to doing the ornament and the prayer that went at the end of each lesson. He is picture of our Jesse Tree, thank you to Colleen and the Carrell's for getting this tradition started in our family.